World of the living wood
by AShadowThingy
Summary: After eating the Tree Tree fruit as a child, Luffy sets out to accomplish his dream of being the King of the Pirates! Look out world, here comes a storm the likes that have never been seen before! Smarter Luffy.
1. Chapter 1

**I've got big plans for this one, but first I have questions.  
 _1.) Romance? If so, who/who?_  
 _2.) Extended crew? If so, who?_  
Let me know in the reviews!  
Now then, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Dawn Island.**  
 **Foosha village.**

Monkey D. Luffy was not having a good day.

It had started out well, though. In fact it had been a great day. Shanks had come visiting again! Luffy couldn't be better! Shanks was Luffy's hero, a real live pirate! He'd told him lots of stories of his travels: Braving vast seas, the epics of his battles with Marines and the other pirates that thought they could best them in a fight, and the most important part of being a pirate, to Luffy anyway, the freedom! Luffy practically had stars in his eyes as Shanks and his crew regaled the small boy with their stories as they drank and made merry in Makino's bar, Luffy grinning all the while.

That was, until that stupid bandit had shown up.

He had humiliated Shanks, dousing him in booze and mocking him after he had tried to clean up the mess made by wrecking the bar Shanks had been seated at with a slash of his sword. And all the while, neither Shanks or even his crew made to defend him, simply waiting it out in silence. That Luffy could take. He could understand not fighting bad out of fear of those stronger than him. Some people were like that. Of course, it would have meant Shanks was a coward, something Luffy would despise, but he could live with that.

But it was after the bandit had left that Luffy's last nerve had given way. Shanks and his crew had laughed it off. _Laughed_. How could they call themselves pirates, or even _men_ , after that? They didn't stand up for themselves, they didn't fight back, and now they laughed about how they were embarrassed, _humiliated_ , like that? Luffy couldn't stand it!

The small boy ground his teeth together and he gnashed into his food again, still fuming.

He had spoke his mind too, declared that they weren't pirates or men because they didn't fight back, but Shanks just smiled a knowing smile and told him it was just a drink, not worth getting bent out of shape about.

Luffy swallowed and took another savage bite of his fruit, trying to relieve his anger, but found it hadn't lessened at all. If anything, the taste of the fruit was making him even angrier. It was horrible! It was like someone had taken every fruit in the world, let them rot, and slammed it together to make the very fruit he was eating before giving it an aftertaste of sawdust. He probably would have spit it out in disgust if not for the fact that working his jaw like this tended to simmer his temper.

"Ha, you shouldn't eat out of frustration, Luffy." Shanks chuckled as he caught the sight of Luffy's stress eating from the corner of his eye.

"Shut up!" Luffy snapped back.

Shanks's amusement, however, vanished as he saw the open box next to the boy. The _empty_ open box.

"Wait, what are you eating?!" Shanks demanded as he quickly shoved himself up from the floor. The sudden change in Shanks frightened Luffy somewhat as he stopped eating, looking up at Shanks with quivering eyes. "Don't tell me you ate the fruit that was in that box!" Acting quickly, Shanks grabbed Luffy by the ankles and yanked up off his seat until he was hanging upside down nearly a foot from the floor. "You _Dumbass_! Spit it out! Spit it out right now! Every last bit!" He shouted as he shook the small boy.

"Shanks! Cut it out! You're gonna drop me!" Luffy squirmed about in the pirates grasp, the breath being shaken out of him in gasps and his stomach tossing about with the jerking movements. "Dammit Shanks, stop it!" He shouted in annoyance until finally, the shaking stopped. Luffy breathed out a sigh of relief, reaching up to brush his forehead as Shanks held him above the ground, the entire bar completely silent.

"Luffy..." Shanks muttered, a slight quiver to his voice. Frowning, Luffy craned his neck to look up at the pirate, only for his eyes to widen in shock. "Would you mind letting my hands go?" Shanks asked, his voice seeming calm, but it wasn't hard for anyone to detect the underlying panic as he inspected the serpentine like tree branches growing out of where Luffy's feet had been not seconds before, the wood sprouting leaves as it latched onto his hands like a constricting snake.

"S-Shanks." Luffy whimpered as he looked at where his feet should have been, fear worming its way through him. "W-What happened to my feet?!" He cried out in an explosive episode of absolute terror, the seven year old thrashing about in desperation and confusion, only to throw Shanks about with him, twisting his arms every time he tried to kick his way free of whatever had happened to his feet.

"Luffy!" Shanks shouted, gritting his teeth as his elbows strained against the force trying to bend them the wrong was as Luffy kicked about again. "Stop!" But it was no use, Luffy's own fear driven cries and thrashing about drowning the captain out as he kicked again, lurching Shanks forward and nearly to the ground as he lost his balance. True, Shanks had been in much more painful and strenuous ordeals, but this wasn't exactly comfortable. Luffy really could squirm around.

" _Dammit, this isn't working_." Shanks thought as he ground his teeth together. " _Screw it_." Splaying his feet and squaring his shoulders, he held Luffy up higher for but a brief second as he narrowed his eyes. A ripple of power distorted through the air between him and Luffy and immediately, Luffy stopped squirming, his eyes having rolled into the back of his head as he began foaming at the mouth, his body falling limp.

Shanks's crew watched on in silence, surprised that their captain would use the kings will on a child. True, the kid was refusing to calm down and could have hurt somebody with his new apparent devil fruit powers, but it was unexpected nonetheless. Slowly, before their very eyes, the branches that had encased Shanks's arms receded, shrinking back towards Luffy until they shrunk and reshaped back into the boys feet.

Sighing, Shanks gently lay the small child down on the floor, closing Luffy's eyes and mouth with an almost fatherly smile.

"C-Captain..." Came a meek voice from behind Shanks. With wide eyes, the entire crew of the red hair pirates turned to see Makino standing behind Shanks, the bar owner having watched the entire scene unfold. "W-What just happened?" She asked, clearly having no idea what was going on.

"Uuhhh..." Shanks's mouth opened and closed as he gaped like a fish out of water, clearly unsure how to proceed. "Well you see..." He began with a forced chuckle, nervously rubbing the back of his head as he tried to find the words, only too give up and look to Benn with a pleading, puppy eyed look that was a clear cry for help.

Sighing, Benn resigned himself to being the one to explain everything. "What we had in that chest was a rare fruit called a devil fruit. This particular fruit in the Ki Ki No Mi, or the Tree Tree fruit. It has literally turned Luffy into a tree man." The first mate of the crew explained with a grave, ominous tone as he looked to Shanks. "From what Lucky and I were able to figure out, it's a Logia type. And if wielded correctly it could b one of the most powerful fruit in the world." His voice rumbled.

Shanks frowned and made to speak, but was interrupted by a small groaning coming from the floor. Looking down, Shanks and his crew found Luffy stirring, the small boy slowly pushing himself upright and rubbing his head. " _He's awake already?_ " Shanks thought with a frown. " _That's not right. No, he should be out for the rest of the night unless he's got..._ " Shanks turned rather pale as his thought trailed off. " _Ah shit. I really hope I'm wrong or else I may have just awakened any haki he might possess prematurely. This isn't good._ " He looked over the core members of his crew with a serious and slightly panicked look, one they all shared.

Kneeling down beside Luffy, Yasopp gave him a worried look as he rubbed circles on the boys back in a calming manner. "Hey Luffy, you feelin alright there?" He asked in a soft voice. Luffy just frowned in grumbled in response, rubbing his eyes as though he had just awoken from a long sleep. That was, until his eyes widened fearfully and he stared down at his feet. Slowly, and a little cautiously, he reached down and poked the big toe on his right foot.

"It feels like my toe..." He mumbled as he poked his foot. "It feels alright..." Gingerly, he moved onto his other foot and repeated the process, carefully poking his big toe and then his foot before adopting a look of serious thought. The red hair pirates shared a confused glance before turning back to Luffy. "Huh." The small boy huffed as he folded his arms over his chest and cupped his chin as though he had just decided something serious. "That was a really weird dream."

At this, the Shanks and his crew deflated into wheezing laughter.

"L-Luffy!" Shanks managed as he forced his laughter down, yet couldn't be rid of the dopey grin on his face. "That wasn't a dream." He chuckled, ruffling the wide eyed boys hair affectionately.

"B-But then-" Luffy sputtered as tears looked about to fall from his fearful eyes.

"Relax." Shanks interrupted, cupping Luffy's chin and bringing his eyes up the to pirates own. Shanks too a deep breath, ignoring his laughing crew and calming himself as he shifted his hands to grip Luffy's shoulders and looked directly into his eyes as his grin finally died, the normally jovial pirate adopting a more somber look, the crew's laughter dying off as they mirrored their Captain. "Luffy, you ate a devil fruit. Devil fruits give you strange powers, but those who eat them are cursed by the sea. You'll never be able to swim in the ocean ever again." Luffy lost a bit of color at the information. "I'm sorry."

"I won't be able to swim again?" Luffy asked as he stared up at his idol with large, wide eyes that threatened the pirate with tears. If he couldn't swim, would that mean that he couldn't be a pirate? Would he not be able to chase his dream of being the pirate king? But is he couldn't follow his dream then... "Shanks..." Luffy whimpered as his bottom lip quivered, his head drooping as he tried desperately not to let the stinging feeling in the corners of his eyes get to him. "Can I..." He sniffed as he failed to hold in his tears, the first slowly trickling down his cheek. "Can I still be a pirate?"

Shanks's heart rippled with guilt at the look of the crying boy. He felt for him, he really did. Who was he to crush this boy's dreams? "Of course you can still be a pirate." He said with a forced smile, immediately bringing pause to Luffy's probably meltdown. "In fact, I know a lot of pirates that have devil fruit powers." He continued, using a finger to lift Luffy's chin up, Shanks's smile becoming all the more genuine as he saw the hope in little Luffy's eyes.

"In fact, have you ever heard of a man called Whitebeard?" Benn asked as he appeared beside Luffy, who looked up at the tall man with wonder. Luffy shook his head. "Well, Whitebeard is one of the most powerful pirates in the world." Benn began. "He fought Gol D. Roger himself a few times. He was the pirate kings biggest rival, and he has devil fruit powers."

Luffy's eyes widened as a great big smile that looked as though it was too big to be natural spread across his face. "Really?" He asked with an awed look in his eyes.

"You betcha, kid." Lucky Roo joined in, taking a bite out of his leg of ham. "Whitebeard's got devil fruit powers, and he's known as the strongest man in the world. He has the biggest pirate fleet in the world, too. In fact, a lot of his crew have devil fruit powers."

"Yeah." Shanks grinned as he gave the seven year old a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You can still be a pirate with devil fruit powers. Hell, if anything they might even make you all the stronger if you got the right one, and you got one of the strongest types." He chuckled. "You ate the tree tree fruit. Your a tree man."

"All right!" Luffy shouted as he leaped up onto his previous seat and then onto the bar top, facing the red hair pirates and, with a look of pure determination, he boldly declared before all. "I'm going to become the king of the pirates!"

Shanks smiled up at the boy as the pirate remained crouching on the floor, as from this angle his eyes seemed to deceive him, because it almost looked like the shadow of his old captain was grinning down on little Monkey D. Luffy. But that image was shatter by one simple, innocent question.

"Hey Shanks? What's a tree man do?"

* * *

The water in the well rippled, the sounds of dark laughter echoing through the eerily quiet town. Luffy grit his teeth in anger as he glared up at the man who currently had his foot planted on the small boys chest, holding him against the well in the center of Foosha village.

"We were having a nice and quite beer until you strolled in." The leader of the mountain bandits, Higuma, muttered boredly, his face an emotionless mask as he stared down at the boy at his mercy. "What'd you go and do that for, kid?"

Luffy's eyes shook in anger, his fists trembling as he wiped a scruff of dirt from his face. He was dirty from beating and his shirt torn a bit, but he was otherwise unhurt, something he would have thought about if his attention wasn't currently occupied.

"Apologize, dammit!" He growled up at the tall man, whose hand now rested on the pommel of his sword as he took his foot from Luffy's chest, only to bring it crashing down on his face, but Luffy merely bared his teeth and endured. He would endure this, just as Shanks had endured. "You were making fun of Shanks and his crew!"

It had taken a while for him to understand what had happened, but after Shanks and Benn had explained the scene in the bar, Luffy had become determined to make amends for what he had said, so when he had seen the same mountain bandits in Makino's bar just days later, he had bolstered his courage to confront them, unfortunately, it had all gone downhill from there, as he had landed in his current predicament; A mountain bandits boot in his face.

Higuma clicked his tongue. "Did something I say hit a nerve?" He asked mockingly, getting a few more chuckles from his men. But his mockery meant nothing to Luffy.

"Damn right!" He shouted as he tried to shove the bandits foot off his face, but to no avail. "Apologize!"

The mountain bandit merely sighed as he cleaned his ear with his pinky. He had felt the eyes of the terrified village upon him as he beaten the kid, but he didn't care for it. What he did like, though, was the fear each of them felt at the sight of him. Whenever he had strolled through the village, everyone trembled at the sight of the man worth 8,000,000 Berri. It made him feel like a king.

So when this brat had insulted him in the village bar, well... He had an image to keep up.

"That was a poor choice of words, kid." He muttered, looking down his nose at the seven year old boy. "No one has ever pissed me off and lived to tell about it." His voice was dark and rough, full of contempt as he grasped the hilt of his sword.

"Please wait!" Came a panic ridden voice. The bandit turned to see man in what he would guess to be his late fifties, huffing as though he had just run all the way here from Goa, as the bar owner, Makino, stood behind him. "Let the child go, I beg of you!" He called out. Luffy's eyes widened as he looked from the bandit above him to old mayor Woop Slap. "I don't know what Luffy's done, but we don't want any trouble! We'll pay you as an apology!" He rasped out as he slowly brought himself to his hands an knees, bowing his head in his prostate position. "I beg you, let the child go!"

"Mayor!" Luffy called out in fright. He liked the old man. Sure he could be grouchy and he shouted at him whenever Luffy got into trouble, but he had been nice, a kind grandfatherly type. At least, much better than his actually grandfather. To see him beg like this just for Luffy...

"You old folks sure know the ways of the world." The mountain bandit smirked his cruel smirk as he watched the old man over his shoulder, enjoying the sight of someone begging so lowly before him. "Unfortunately, you're too late to save him. He'd gone and pissed me off." His smirk bled into his voice as he drew his blade, tormentingly slow as he stared the boy straight in the eyes. Luffy, to his credit, glared right back at him.

"You're the one who pissed people off, mountain monkey!" Luffy defiantly roared back. Although insulting, annoying, brash and in need of a wake up call as to how the world worked, Higuma had to give the kid credit; He had balls of steel.

"What a hopeless brat." He sneered. Balls of steel or not, he really hated this kid right now. "You can regret what you've done in the afterlife." The bandit growled as he lowered his sword to the boys neck.

"Luffy!" Makino cried out in horror as she watched the vicious looking snarled that spread across the mountain bandits lips as he pulled his blade back, his aim taken and bade thirsting.

"Please! Let him go!" Woop Slap cried out in desperation as Luffy squirmed and struggled underneath the bandits boot in a vain attempt to get free.

The bandit grinned viciously as he swung his gleaming blade down, slicing through the air to the cacophony of horrified screams of the villagers as Luffy let out a cry of defiance. He would not go into the next life without at least making some damn noise! But all thoughts and sounds were cut short as the blade found purchase, and a wave of pure, unbridled will erupted within the town.

* * *

Shanks laughed jovially as he and his crew made their way down the dirt track, heading back to Foosha village. He and his crew had only come to Dawn island for a vacation, a rest and relaxation after their first voyage through the New World. It had been trying, full of challengers and rival crews or marines at every turn, but they had made it nonetheless, and he'd be damned if after all of that they didn't get a bloody break.

And it was a damn good idea. The crew liked the relaxed change of pace. They finally got to do normal things without worrying who would challenge or try to turn them in next. In fact, after the past week on the island, Benn had finally gotten drunk enough to loosen up his inhibitions, and what came out happened to be what they had set out to do today.

Benn had always wanted, of all the mundane things to do in life, to go hunting in a forest.

Apparently he had never done so, even after all the heavily wooded island they had visited during their trip around the Grand Line. But Shanks would be damned if he didn't let his best friend and first mate have such a simple joy of life. And so, the crew had set out in teams of three to go hunting. Not only would it be a tick off Benn's bucket list, but it also served to restock the ship.

But like in all things they do that aren't life threatening, the Red Hair pirates eventually turned it into something much less serious than hunting to restock, as so their afternoon devolved into a hunting competition; Who could hunt the biggest animal. Whoever lost paid for the first round tonight.

And now, after an entire afternoon of dashing through the undergrowth chasing wild animals, laughing all the way, Shanks and his crew felt in the right mood for another night of drinking.

That was, until the crew was stopped in its tracks by a massive wave of the Kings Will.

Shanks paled. Only those who could survive the New World could use haki. What the hell was someone like that doing here?! Had someone followed after them? Bounty hunters? Rival pirates? A shiver ran down Shanks's spine as he clenched his fists. He liked this place, he really did, and he'd made some great friends here, so if anyone, _anyone_ , that had come for him ended up hurting Makino or Luffy or even old man Woop Slap...

A glint of unbridled rage shone in Shanks eyes as he glared at the village in the distance, his hands shifting to his blade.

Not even the wrath of the seven seas would compare to what he would do.

"Captain?" Lucky asked, trepidation in his voice. He'd only seen that look in his captains eye once before, and that was when marines had captured Yasopp. According to rumors, pieces of marines still washed ashore of what was left of the island, even all these months later.

A stern nod was all Shanks gave him.

The crew, all New World pirates in their own right, immediately took flight, their movements a blur as they speed down the track at breakneck speed, weapons being drawn and guns loaded along the way. Whoever had shown their faces here wouldn't live to regret it. But it was the smudges of green and brown that were trees and bushes turned to the rigid shapes of building and they began to slow that they knew something was off.

The villagers were unconscious, yes, foaming at the mouths and eyes rolled into the backs of their heads, but none of them looked as though they had been in any state to fight or run. They had been watching something, but it hadn't threatened them. The hell had happened here? It was then that they stumbled upon what looked to be the epicenter, where everyone had been looking towards, and Shanks felt his blood run cold.

The mountain bandits from a few days ago littered the area around the villages well, their leader unconscious directly in front of it. On the other side of the mass of unconscious bodies, though, lay Makino and Woop Slap, the old geezer had been propped up into a sitting position against a house, but had fallen off to the side as though he were drunkenly passed out.

Makino sat beside him, mouth slightly agape and eyes closed as in her lap sat and sobbed a small child. Luffy's hands crumpled her clothes as he hugged her tight, his face buried in her chest as his tears stained her clothes, the soft sobs of the young boy being the only sounds on the entire island in that moment. Not even the birds and insects had been spared from the torrent of conquerors haki.

"Luffy..." Shanks muttered as he stared dumbfounded at the seven year old boy's head. Or more accurately, the sword embedded in it. How the hell..? Actually, now that Shanks thought about it, Luffy wouldn't know that he could survive a sword to the head. He had been told what a logia was and could do, but he was too young to comprehend it. Looking about, his eyes narrowed on the unconscious body of the lead mountain bandit. He was missing his sword.

It was making perfect sense to Shanks now. The bandit had swung his sword at Luffy and the kid, not knowing that it wouldn't kill him, had considered his life in danger. As such, his prematurely awakened haki had blasted the entire are in a subconscious bid to keep alive. Unfortunately, if Luffy hadn't been a logia, it wouldn't have worked. The sword now protruding from his head being evidence of that.

Turning about to look over his shoulder, refusing to let Makino go, Luffy sniffled as he tried to make out who had spoke his name through his bleary tears. "S-Shanks? I-Is th-that y-you?" He choked out, and the New World pirate felt his heart break at the pain in Luffy's voice.

"Captain..." Yasopp began, his eyes the size of saucers as he took in the sight before him. "You know what this means, right?"

"Of course." Shanks muttered quietly, unable to keep his eyes off the scene in front of him.

"P-Please help!" Luffy begged as he forced back another sob. "I-I don't know wh-what happened! E-Everyone j-just dropped!" Luffy's voice cracked under the strain of emotion as rivers continued to pour down his face. "Please Shanks! Help!" He shouted in desperation, before quietly whimpering under his breath. "I'm scared."

Shanks swallowed as he slowly made his way over to the terrified child, carefully stepping over the unconscious bandits to get to him. If Luffy was truly the only person in this village conscious, and from extending his observation haki out it looked like he was, then that would mean that the conquerors will had to have come from him. Monkey D. Luffy, the son of the most wanted man in the world, Monkey D. Dragon, and grandson of the most praised and heroic marine in recent history, Monkey D. Garp, wielded a truly monstrous amount of conquerors will.

Shanks sighed as he stopped beside the weeping child. Such a potent will had _never_ been seen outside of the New World before, so for Luffy to have it... Dammit. He'd have to be taught how to wield it as not to hurt someone on accident. But that in and of itself was a predicament. There was no one around to train the boy, and if Shanks himself were to do it, his presence would attract unwanted attention.

Shanks took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair and looked over his shoulder at his crew, who all gave him encouraging gestures. As if this wasn't hard enough...

Shaking his head, Shanks decided. He'd rather be caught himself than have Luffy go untrained and run around with a weapon more powerful than a marine armada doing who knows what. If something happened because Shanks didn't train him, wouldn't that be Shanks's fault? Indirectly, for sure, but that's how his conscience worked anyhow. Besides, he didn't have to train him completely, just give hims enough instruction so that he had enough control not to hurt anyone with it.

Whats more so, is that Shanks could just let Garp know what happened the next time he showed up. The marine hero would be over the moon with his grandson wielding such a power, so much so that Shanks would be willing to bet that he'd take more time off to spend with his grandson and train him more.

A smile tugged at his lips.

That settled it then. Shanks and his crew would stay and help Luffy understand and control his conqueror's haki until Garp showed up and then passed the torch onto him. Simple. And in doing such, they would reduce the risk of Luffy hurting others with his powers and others being drawn towards Luffy because of Shanks's presence. A win/win if Shanks ever saw one. There was just one more thing to do then.

"It's ok, Luffy." Shanks smiled down at the boy as he knelt closer. "Everything's alright. They're just unconscious, is all. They'll wake up soon enough." He assured as he gently ruffled the small boys hair. Luffy's sobbing lessened, but his grip on Makino was never relinquished, something Shanks would be happy to tease the little anchor about later on. "Just, stay like that for a bit there." He told Luffy as his hand shifted atop his head to grasp the hilt of the sword.

With a quick yank, Shanks pulled the sword from Luffy's head and tossed it aside carelessly, watching in fascination as the wood inside Luffy's head stitched itself back together, before a realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

" _I forgot he's a Logia. Damn._ " It was well known throughout the new world that a complacent logia was a dead logia, knowing armament haki was a must for them to survive in the second half of the grand line. " _Well, If i'm going to train him to control his kings will, then I might as well tell him about armaments. Hell, might even help him train to get it a bit._ " He thought rather nonchalantly, enjoying the thought of having an actual reason to stick around the little anchor. Crouching down until he was eye level with the teary eyed boy, Shanks grinned as he held his hat in one hand.

"Hey now little anchor." Shanks began as Luffy turned to look at him, his eyes puffy and red. "Come on Luffy, wipe up those tears. No one got hurt." The pirate assured. "Besides, I've never heard about a pirate that cries so much." He said, trying to rouse the boy a bit to get him out of his sobbing state.

"B-but Shanks..." Luffy sniffed. "I-I hurt all these people, didn't I?" He choked out. "I hurt Makino and old man mayor." Shanks recoiled at the words, shocked, before a grim determination set over him.

"Luffy, they're fine." Shanks began. "But this power you have, you kings will, it can hurt people, yes." Luffy's eyes swelled with fresh tears at this, but before they could spill, his eyes were covered by a mesh of straw as Shanks rested his hat on Luffy's head. The hat was so big on Luffy, it sat over the top of his eyes, bringing an affectionate chuckle from Shanks.

"But that's only if you can't control it." The red haired pirate continued as he screwed the hat down onto Luffy's head even more before standing up. "And I promise you Luffy, I'm not leaving until I help you control it." As the words left his mouth, Luffy's head shot up until the hat was tilted backwards on his head to show his hope filled eyes staring back up at Shanks as he blinked his eyes away.

"You will?" He asked quietly, and Shanks felt something akin to fatherly protectiveness shift within him as he stared down at that small boy wearing his hat and tear tracks running down his cheeks. Shanks held a hand up to his chest, covering his heart and staring Luffy directly in the eyes.

"Luffy, that hat there is very special to me. It belonged to my old Captain, and he was a great man that I deeply admired. That hat is all I have left of him. That hat is my treasure." Luffy's eyes widened in awe as he took in the hat atop his head. "So you hold onto that hat for me. You take good care of it, and know that the very hat on you head is symbol of my promise to you. I promise, on my honor and my greatest treasure, to train you to control your conquerors haki. And later, when you become a great pirate of the seas, you promise find me and return that hat to me, deal?" Shanks asked, holding out a hand to the boy with a smile.

Luffy grinned back up at him, wiping away his tears as he climbed off of Makino's lap, puffing out his chest and clasping Shanks hand in his own with a tight grip.

"Deal!"

* * *

 **10 Years Later...**

The sun shone through the cloudless sky over Dawn Island, bathing the crowd gathered at the docks in its warmth. " _Perfect weather for the occasion._ " Luffy thought with a smirk as he held in his hand the very thing he had become famous to the entire island for wearing more than anything. Of course, Shanks's straw hat had never left his sight since the pirate had given it to him. After all, he had a promise to keep.

Luffy stood taller than most seventeen year old's were, probably because of his habit of constantly using his devil fruit, but as he stood on the dock of Foosha village with pride. He wore his sleeveless red red unbuttoned, showing his heavily tanned skin to the world, along with a pair of denim shorts and sandals. Twirling his straw hat on the tip of his finger, Luffy felt an intense excitement building up inside him. Looking out to sea, he couldn't help but feel as though it was calling to him. The was an adventure out there! He could feel it!

Turning about to look at those he had grown up surrounded by, Luffy flashed them his signature grin and waved as he stepped into the small boat, just as his older brother had done not three years ago. "Bye!" He called out to the waving crowd. "I'll miss you guys!"

"We'll miss you too, Luffy!" Makino shouted back as she waved. "Goodbye!" Beside her, major Woop Slap crossed his arms and grumbled incoherently, only to receive as sharp nudge from Makino's elbow and a scowl. "At least say farewell." She scolded.

"That kid's gonna ruin this villages good name." He muttered, only for Makino to roll her eyes. "But I might as well wish him luck." The elder man conceded. "See ya later, ya brat!" He shouted with a wave. Makino huffed and glared at the old man, but supposed that was the best she was going to get.

"Look out for me in the papers!" Luffy chuckled back, much to the horror of the old mayor, before sitting down in the boat, his feet slowly sinking into the wood until they had complete merged with it, his feet being a part of the boat and small leaves having sprouting off parts of the tiny dingy already, and he could feel the current of the water under his feet. Not that he knew what to do with it, but it felt reassuring to know what way the water flowed.

With a mighty heave, Luffy pulled back on the oars and the boat lurched forward under the force, and Luffy smiled brightly. The smell of the sea breeze, the gentle, soothing sensation of a swaying boat... Luffy felt more at home on the sea than he did on land, which was odd considering he was a tree man, but nonetheless, he was truly beginning to feel like a pirate now.

It was then that the rocking of the boat became more aggressive, the current under the boat suddenly the opposite way as it made way for the massive displacement. Frowning as he tilted his head back until he was leaning backwards and looking behind him, Luffy blinked as he saw the grinning lips of the lord of the bay, the local baby sea king that prowled the waters around dawn island.

"Hello there." Luffy grinned as he stood up, turning to face the beast properly. "You know, I used to have nightmares about you when I was really little." He laughed as he reached to his left his his arm outstretched, watching as it rapidly grew in length with bark growing up and down his thickening arm. "Funny how things come in circle like that, huh? Cause if you survive this..." Luffy's grin turned predatory, the slightest inkling of his conquerors haki leaking into his being to make him seem that much more daunting. "Then you'll be having nightmares about me!"

Suddenly his arm, which had grown into a ten meter long tree trunk as thick as a man, flattened and compressed in upon itself until it became a sharp, wooden grain pattern scythe blade longer than the boat Luffy stood in. Pulling his arm back, the beast saw the immediate danger too late as it opened its maw. "Harvesting Blade!" With a mighty swing of his wooden blade arm, Luffy felt his attack bit flesh and tear right through as the reapers tool took the lord of the bays head.

Luffy's boat rocked as the waves made by the fallen beasts caress sunk beneath the waves lapped at his small dingy, the weight of his blade nearly capsizing it if he didn't grow an equal mass of branches out the other side of the boat. The new pirate smirked as he retreated his arm and the counter weight back into his body and the boat, respectively. It had been an easy victory, but it was more symbolic than anything, and to Luffy, the symbol was clear.

His adventure had truly begun!

* * *

 **Well that's it for chapter one!**  
 **I kinda wanted to get this rolling and out of the way so I could dig into the rest. Anyway, I plan on Luffy being a bit smarter along with his new devil fruit and basic knowledge of Haki, so he's not an expert, just has the basics. He'll get better with time.**  
 _ **  
Luffy's fruit:**_  
 **People have been asking how the tree tree fruit is a logia and it has even been compared to Katakuri's Mochi mochi fruit. But here's the thing. The Mochi mochi fruit is classified as a 'special paramecia'. A special Paramecia is called as such because their fruits turn their bodies into the material but don't give them the ability to control or create it, like logia do. Katakuri can only create mochi because he awakened his fruit, and he can only become intangible because he uses observation and morphs his body before the attack hits. The fruit that Luffy uses in this fic is a Logia because it his body is made of wood and he can create and manipulate it. To those who say Trees aren't an element, well neither is sand or magma, yet no one questioned those in cannon.  
**  
 **Anyway, let me know what you think in the reviews!**  
 **Until next time!**  
 **Toodles!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow!**  
 **Never expected such a huge response to the first chapter, the story's also already in a community. I have been blown away! Thank you guys so much!**  
 **Concerning pairings and the extended crew:  
** **There seems to be a lot of clashing opinions. I've made two polls on my page concerning whether you want an extended crew or pairing. Be sure to leave your vote, each one matters!**  
 _ **Tree Tree Fruit:**_  
 _ **People have been asking why it's a logia, as trees aren't an element. Well neither is smoke, sand or swamp. They're forces of nature, just like... I dunno, trees?**_  
 **Anyway, without further ado.**

* * *

Nami was bored. Dressed in the best dress she could steal, she sat beside a window on the luxury cruise liner, sipping at campaign with an absent look, watching the waves roll past and the small island in the distance drift by. She had snuck on board this ship thinking it would be a big, glaring target for any pirate worth their name, and on every pirate ship was bound to be a hoard of treasure.

But of course there was a draw back to being a pretty girl on a rich persons ship. That problem being-

"Excuse me miss. Would you like to dance?"

That problem right there.

Looking over her shoulder, Nami found a young man in a suit with his hand held out expectantly, a smug look of overconfidence plastered on his face as he waited his response. In truth, Nami wanted nothing more than to slap that look from his face and shout at him until he fled, but she needed to fit in here as not to rouse suspicion.

"Sure." She said with a sickly sweet smile that oozed falsities as a shiver of disgust shivered down her spine. As her body began to sway to the melody without thought, her feet moving with practiced precision, Nami's thoughts drifted her to what had kept her going all these years, the thoughts of her goals once she was freed from her prison. She was so close, she could just close her eyes and picture herself after her freedom.

She stood on the deck of a ship, looking out over the horizon as the sun bathed her in its light, a fresh sea breeze blowing through her hair. In her hands she held a scroll of paper, and on it, her master piece. It hadn't been completed, not yet, but it would be soon. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes to see the last island for her to map. The last blank space on her map of the world.

Raftel.

A terrified shouted shattered her daydream and brought her crashing back into reality and into the ballroom of the cruise liner and the smug ass holding her hands. But while the shout nearly brought a smile to her face, it brought panic to the room and a girlish squeal from her dance partner with one simple word.

"Pirates!" One of the crewman shouted as he burst through the doors. Yep, Nami had been right on the money. A cruise ship like this might as well be a floating target. "Pirates are attacking"!

* * *

His face hurt. Scratch that, most of his body hurt. Getting kicked from one ship to another was bound to do that to you though, so it wasn't really surprising. Coby massaged what was surely to be a large bruise on his head as he gaped at the massive hole in wall in front of him. While he had crashed into the wall and slid down onto the floor like a bad comic, Alvida had leaped over him and crashed right _through_ it. How she could do that without everything aching was beyond Coby, but then again, he often wondered how the very floor she walked on didn't give way under her.

Sighing as he pushed himself up onto his feet, the short cabin boy made sure to look around to spy any of Alvida's crew about. Thankfully, there were none, leaving him free to find a place to hide out until the raid was over. Such was his routine during these events. As he crept around the wreckage of what had once been a wall to find the door, like a _civilized_ person would do, Coby once again lamented as to how he had ended up in the situation he was in.

It was his own fault for not paying attention as to where he had put his feet really, but man if he didn't regret it...

Sighing once more and cursing his luck, Coby looked up from his feet and found and opened door. Curiosity peeked, he poked his head through the gap and called out. "Hello?" Silence was his answer. Slowly, he crept forward, the door creaking as it went. All around him were shelves and cupboards full of foods and cooking utensils and a stack of barrels in the corner. "Huh. Looks like there's no one here..." He trailed off as he swallowed, shifting his feet nervously. "Thank goodness." He breathed out in relief.

Looking about the room once more for anything that may interest Alvida, Coby began his search for something to appease the bloated Captain once the raid was over. She normally demanded to know where had been during these attacks and only ever let him off if he presented something of either worth or interest, like jewelry or a lot of booze. With that last item in the forefront of him mind, Coby's eyes locked onto the largest barrel in the room.

"That's a pretty big barrel..." He muttered as he walked over to it. It lay on it's side, unlike those in the neat stack next to it, so it was likely a new addition. But as he stopped next to it, he finally began to appreciate it size. It was bigger than he was! Whatever was in it was either large or there was a lot of it. If it was food then it'd be good for the ships stores, but it wouldn't get him into Alvida's good graces. But if it was booze...

Shrugging, Coby clambered over the top of it and over to the other side to begin pushing, only to grunt in exertion. It had hardly budged! Whatever was inside it was certainly heavy. Coby found his hopes of the barrel being full of alcohol rising ever so slightly as he put his back and shoulders into moving the barrel. With a heave, the barrel began rolling across the floor.

"Well well well." Came a voice echoed by a chorus of snickers. "If it isn't little Coby!"

The pinkette froze, the barrel continuing to roll forward before coming to an abrupt stop in font of three extra pairs of legs. Slowly, Coby lifted his head to see the three pirates of Alvida's crew standing over him, one of them with their foot planted on the barrel and an eager grin on his face as his friends peered over his shoulders.

"Hey runt!" Chimed in the pirate on the right. "You weren't planning on hiding out down here and slacking off again, were you?" He asked with a glint in his eyes that left Coby feeling unnerved.

"N-Not at all!" Coby denied. "I was just taking this big wine barrel up above deck!" He said as he scampered back slightly, putting a few paces distance between himself and the trio. But at the mention of wine, the pirate to the left, who was most certainly the widest, chuckled darkly.

"Well then, why don't we help you out, runt?" He began as he took a step forward and began admiring the large barrel. "After all, I don't think a skinny little maggot like yourself could roll this all the way to the deck. Let us... Lighten the load for ya." He grinned as he grabbed one end and hoisted the barrel up to a standing position with visible effort.

"W-Wait! What if Alvida finds out?!" Coby cried out in panic as he saw his plan of appeasement crumbling before his eyes.

"Bah!" One of the pirate huffed, his eyes narrowing as he stared Coby down. "What she doesn't won't hurt her. Right, Coby? She just doesn't need to know." The threat was clear, and Coby found himself backpedaling and nodding in agreement. The pirate grinned wickedly, his eyes shifting to the barrel in front of him. "Well then, let's crack this baby open then, shall we?" He chuckled as he raised a large fist.

With a grin of greed and gluttony, he plunged his fist down an into the wood, crashing through it with an audible ' _CRACK!_ ' and his fist continued down deep into the barrel, crushing the apples within. "What? Apples?" He asked in both chock and annoyance, but before either of those could grow to anger, a branch like lashing sprung forth from the barrel and wrapped around the arm of the startled pirate before constricting tightly. A brief yelp of pain burst from the unfortunate pirates lips before a thick branch sprouting leaves and sticks struck out from the top of the barrel like a snake, latching onto his face with a resounding ' _CRUNCH!_ ' as flecks of blood and broken cartilage sailed through the air.

The pirate slumped to the floor with a ' _THUD_ ', blood freely flowing from his broken nose as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Now quivering in the corner, Coby watched as one of the remaining two pirates shakenly drew a pistol and pointed it at the barrel, while the other simple grew paler and paler. As all three watched, however, more root and branch like tendrils of wood emerged from the barrel and began winding about each other, forming a distinctly human shape until, within the span of a few seconds, the wood changed to flesh and cloth. Sitting atop the broken barrel sat a tall, skinny boy with a scar under his left eye wearing a straw hat, a sleeveless red vest and jean shorts.

"M-M-Monster!" The pirate with a pistol yelled as he pulled the trigger, but his shaking hand meant the bullet went wide, missing the boy by a good half foot and bringing his attention to the terrified pirates.

"Well that's just hurtful." The boy said, flashing a cheeky grin and pushing his straw hat further up his head, before his eyes narrowed and his grin dissapeared. Instantly, his arm shot forward and with a cry of "Cobra Branch!", his arm turned into a solid tree branch, leaves and all, with his fist on the end. The blow crashed into the pirate and sent him flying into his friend behind him, the two slamming into the wall with a painful sounding ' _SMASH!_ ', both dropping to the ground in a convincing display of unconsciousness.

Coby watched with wide, fear stricken eyes, his mouth hanging agape at the scene that had just unfolded before him. Slowly, the straw hatted boy turned to face him, suspicion clear on his face as he grubbed his chin. Coby, having turned several shades to become alarmingly pale, could only watch with a sliver of fascination as, from the boys elbow, a red orb seemed to swell into existence. Not five seconds later, hanging from the strangers elbow was a fully formed red apple, ripe for the picking. And picking is exactly what the boy did, plucking it from his arm and inhaling it in an instant, as that was the only way to describe how the boy ate it. Coby wasn't even sure if he had chewed it.

"You're not going to attack me like those guys, are you?" He asked, eyes still narrowed as another apple grew from the back of his left hand.

"N-No." Coby quickly assured with a vigorous shake of his head. He was sure he didn't sound very convincing, but to his surprise, the boy smiled that cheeky smile again.

"Good!" He said as he hopped off the barrel to land on the floor, still crouching as he ate the apple that had grown from his hand. "So, we're abouts am I?" He asked, catching the pinkette by surprise.

"Y-You don't know?" Coby asked as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. The boy shook his head in the negative, and Coby gulped. This guy had just taken down three of Alvida's crew like it was nothing with those weird powers of his, best to just let him know what he wanted and hoped he didn't hurt him. "You're on a cruise ship, but it's under attack by the Alvida pirates right now..." He trailed off. The boy jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the three unconscious men in an silent question. "Y-Yeah, they're pirates."

"Huh." The straw hatted boy grunted. "Well, I'm Monkey D. Luffy." He introduced himself, pointing his thumb at his chest as a hand of banana's grew from the other side of his fist. "What's your name?" Luffy asked innocently as he stood up, surprising Coby somewhat at just how tall he was.

"I-I'm Coby." The pinkette stuttered as his eyes traveled up at down the tall teen before him. " _He's got to be at least 7ft 6!_ " He thought in astonishment. He didn't even know people grew that tall!

"Alright then Coby." Luffy began as he stretched, bones popping in response. "Have you got any food I could eat? I'm starving!" He laughed as he peeled and inhaled the hand of banana's in less than a second.

"But..." Coby began as he pointed to the now discarded banana peels. "What about all the fruit that keeps..." Coby swallowed, not believing the words he was about to say. "That keeps growing out of your body? What are you anyway?"

"Meh, I'm a tree man." Luffy waved off nonchalantly, as if he had explained such a hundred times before. Then again, anyone would ask that question, so it was likely he had. "Fruits alright, and it's good for you and all, but it doesn't really fill me up." He admitted as he looked about the room, his eyes lighting up at all the food he saw. "What I really need is some meat!"

"W-Well, we are in the kitchen so..." Coby trailed off. Luffy seemed to think that was all the permission he needed as suddenly, sprouting from his back at a seconds notice, a mess of limb like branches burst out and began rifling through the cupboards, seizing food and bringing it back to Luffy to wolf down as though he had never eaten food before. "B-But you have to run!" Coby shouted as Luffy emptied the ships store rooms on his own. "There's a whole crew of pirates up on deck! If they find out what you just di-" Coby stopped abruptly as Luffy turned towards him, a hard, calculating look on his face.

Luffy swallowed. "If they come after me, then I'll beat them too." He stated before returning to his binge eating. Coby was in awe of his confidence. He said it as though he was talking about gravity. It was always there, and no matter what you did, you would succumb to it eventually. Much like what would happen if the rest of the crew attacked him. They could try, but he would defeat them. He made it sound so sure, so simple.

"How can you say that with such confidence?" Coby muttered wondrously.

"Simple, really." Luffy shrugged as a leg of ham vanished into his mouth. "I have a dream I'm chasing. Some day I'm going to be the king of the pirates, and it wouldn't do for the future king of the pirates to lose to these guys, now would it?" He asked with a grin as he gestured to the three unconscious Alvida pirates.

Coby's eyes bulged to impossible proportions as his jaw hit the ground. "P-Pirate king?! Are you a pirate?!" Coby shouted in astonishment. Luffy merely nodded, a blank look on his face as he continued eating. "D-Do you have a crew?" Luffy shook his head.

"Nope, just started out. I'm still looking for a crew." He shrugged carelessly.

It was then that Coby's brain stopped working as it attempted to process what he had just heard. Luffy gave the seemingly shell shocked boy an concerned look as one of the branches from his back waved in his face. It seemed to do the trick as Coby suddenly shook his head to the point where Luffy could have sworn he heard his brain rattle around a bit.

"The pirate king is someone who has everything in the world!" Coby shouted. "That means claiming the treasure which represents wealth, fame and power - One Piece, the greatest treasure in the world!" Luffy nodded as he let Coby continue his rant, wondering if he was going anywhere with it. "All the pirates in the world are trying to claim that treasure!"

"Yep. So am I." Luffy stated with a grin as he downed an entire loaf of bread.

"It's impossible!" Coby shouted, furiously shaking his head again, so much so that Luffy wondered is his brain would fly out one of his ears. "Impossible impossible imposs-" A thin branch sprouted from the closest one to Coby and slapped him across the face, stunning him into silence and leaving a sharp red mark across his cheek. "Why'd you hit me?" Coby choked back a sob.

"Cause you were being annoying."

"O-Oh..." Coby trailed off, rubbing his sore cheek.

"It's not about possible or impossible." Luffy began, having paused his eating and his branches receding back towards him, but not vanishing. "I'm doing this because I want to." Reaching up, Luffy grasped the top of his hat and took it off, revealing his mess of black hair as he stared at his beloved treasure with a fond smile. "I decided to become the king of the pirates, and if I die fighting for it, then that's that. But I'll have died knowing I gave it my all. Putting your life on the line for what you believe in, for your dreams and goals... Now that's living." Luffy said confidently, placing his hat back on his head.

Coby stared up at the pirate with eyes shinning with awe and admiration. The determination and the sheer resolve he saw in Luffy had shaken him to the core. Putting your life on the line for what you believe in, for you dreams and goals... Coby found himself frozen to the spot as Luffy's words echoed throughout his head, repeating until it seemed to sink into every fiber of his being. " _He's right..._ "

"Okay, now that I'm full, time to get me a boat." Luffy grinned, the branches finally disappearing into his back ad he strolled passed Coby with an unfaltering smile. "Maybe if I ask nicely..." He wondered aloud.

"I never thought of it that way." The pinkette whispered to himself as his gaze lowered to the ground. "Can I do that too? If I'm ready to die?" Hearing Coby muttering under his breath, Luffy paused at the door and peered at the small boy over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised. "Maybe I can join the marines..." A sheen of will shimmered in his eyes and his gaze hardened. Coby suddenly stood up straight and whirled about to face Luffy, fists clenched tightly.

"Yes!" He shouted passionately. "It's always been my dream to capture murderous villains! Ever since I was a kid!"

"You still are a kid." Luffy pointed out, but he was apparently ignored as Coby continued.

"Can I do it?!" He shouted out, but continued before Luffy could answer. He was starting to find this kids newfound determination amusing, especially since his dream was to become a marine, and yet he seemed to have gotten his motivation from a pirate. "No, I _will_ do it! If I can shed this life as a slave, I'll escape, and then Alvida will - No! Alvida will be the first one I capture!" He announced, almost as though simply saying it was enough to make it happen.

However, Coby went from determined and bold to shrieking and shaking in the span of 0.025 seconds as the roof seemed to cave in from above, the wood splintering under an unseen force as dust and debris shrouded their view of what had just happened.

"So you're going to join him, and catch _who_?!" Came a rough, horrid voice from the dust cloud. "Eh, Coby?" The same voice asked as the cloud finally gave way to largest person Luffy had ever seen. Alvida glared down at a quivering and cowering Coby, completely ignoring Luffy for the moment, something Luffy was thankful for as several blades sprouted from the door and wall behind him, one of which impaled him right through the chest. Frowning in annoyance, Luffy took a step forward, walking off the blade as his wound was sealed shut almost instantly.

But the movement caught Alvida's attention, her squinting eyes moving to the straw hatted person, and she smirked.

"You're not Roronoa Zoro the pirate hunter." She said as her smirk widened into a grin. As far as she was concerned, the pirate hunter was the only one in the east blue she had to worry about.

"Zoro?" Luffy absentmindedly wondered aloud.

"Coby!" Alvida shouted, earning a pathetic squeak from Coby. "Who's the most beautiful woman on the sea?" She asked with a sneer, but her attention snapped up to Luffy as he suppressed a laugh, only letting a snicker out.

"Shishishi." Luffy chuckled. "Sure as hell not you, ya fat hag!" He shouted, bursting into uncontrollable laughter as each and every person froze at the bold statement.

"Oh man, he is so dead..." One of the pirates from up into the hole Alvida had created whispered in fear as his eyes darted from Luffy to his Captain.

"Fat hag..." Alvida managed as she grit her teeth so hard it was a surprise that they didn't break, her fury so great at being insulted. "You little shit! I'll kill you!" She roared and brought her massive mace down upon Luffy's head in unbridled rage. Both pirates and Coby together cringed and averted their eyes as they heard the loud ' _CRACK_!' of her weapon striking home.

A moment of silence settled over scene, before it was completely shattered.

"Shishishi, you're gonna have to try harder than that." Luffy snickered. Eyes bulged out of their sockets and jaws hit the floor as everyone saw what had become of the tall teen. One hand held his straw hat, leaving his head open to the blow, but where the mace had struck, shone an odd black sheen over his scalp and hair. However, his head, neck and chest had split open like a log under the power of the strike and the mace itself had spiderweb cracks running through it.

" _My armament haki isn't strong enough to protect me completely from physical blows, but it's enough to damage her weapon in return._ " He thought with a smirk as slowly, the iron mace began to fall apart, a single shard of metal at a time until it simply disintegrated as Luffy's haki vanished.

Coby was amazed. Luffy had told him he was a tree man, and he had those weird powers with the limb like branches, but he _never_ could have imagined that those powers would extend to do something like this! This was amazing! No one had ever survived Alvida's club before, and yet, here Luffy was, not only surviving it with his weird and frankly scary powers, but breaking it in return!

Alvida, however, had a vastly different reaction. As he mace crumbled before her and the boy she had struck was pulled back together from the inside by what looked like tree roots, she was slowly backing up. She didn't know what the strange black stuff on his head was, but she knew devil fruit powers when she saw them, and against this weird power she had just seen, it looked like anything she could do wouldn't even hurt him. An odd feeling crept up her spine, one she hadn't felt in a long time, and doused her skull in a cold chill, a single word being at the forefront of her mind. " _Run!_ "

For the first time in years, Iron Mace Alvida felt fear.

"You... You've eaten a devil fruit." She muttered fearfully as she watched his feet _become_ part of the wooden floor. Luffy smirked as he placed his hat back on his head. "I heard rumors but... I never though they existed." She muttered in horror as he conceptions of reality were warped before her very eyes. The devil fruits were supposed to be myths, not real! But yet, here before her, the laws of nature were being violated right in front of her very eyes.

"Yep." He smirked, but paused before attacking, and looked to Coby. "Hey Coby, you never answered her question." He pointed out expectantly. Coby's eyes widened fearfully at first, but as he turned to see the panic in Alvida's face, a realization dawned on him.

" _Putting my life on the line for what I believe, for my dreams and goals..._ " He thought as he clenched his fists. "Not Alvida!" He shouted defiantly. "Alvida's the ugliest, fattest and most disgusting hag I've ever seen!" He shouted, his voice echoing all the way down to the confused cruise ship passengers. Alvida herself looked torn between rage at the insult and fear at the one who had just encouraged her cabin boy to say such things. Unfortunately, as always with Alvida, her rage beat her common sense into a bloody pulp.

"Coby!" She shouted, eyes glassy as she saw red and lunged with outstretched hands. Coby screamed rather indignantly as he saw her put all her size behind the attack, but out of the corner of his eye, Coby caught sight of something just as frightening. Luffy's arm had grown in size, turning from flesh to wood in an instant as his fist swelled into a massive log bigger than Alvida's mace was, and swung away.

"Felled Tree Mallet!" Luffy shouted with glee as the over sized block of wood slammed into Alvida. Hard.

Alvida, clearly not expecting a log the same size as her to knock her out of the air, was thrown back by the brutal strike, feeling several bones creak, groan and crack under the force. The over sized pirate crashed through several walls, each knocking the breath from her, until she came to a complete stop and crumpled to the ground, moaning in pain as her crew watched on, horrified that their previously unbeaten Captain was taken down with a single blow.

"C-Captain..." One of the pirates muttered in terror as he slowly turned to Luffy, his eyes and jaw as wide, if not wider then what ought to be humanly possible. "M-M-M-Monster!" He cried, a cold sweat breaking out over his skin as fear gripped him so tightly he couldn't move.

Luffy let out a loud, good natured laugh. "Yeah, sure. Let's go with that!" He grinned, the gleam in his eyes sending shivers down the spines of all who laid eyes upon him as he crouched, as though readying to attack, yet his feet were still merged with the floor. A tense second passed, before all hell broke loose. Hundreds of branches and roots shot out of the wooden decking and walls, lashing out to wrap around the closest pirate, many being lifted off the deck to be held in mid air as tree branches wrapped around their mouths and bound their arms to their torsos as their legs were trapped as well.

Coby watched on in both wonder and slight fear at the power Luffy wielded so easily. It was amazing! But it didn't stop, as from their immobile positions, the pirates struggled as more branches grew from those already around them, creeping over them to cover them completely and further growing outwards, the branches twisting about one another and fusing together until finally, there on a cruise ship in the middle of the sea, each and every pirate was encased in a tree with only their faces to show.

Some pirates were trapped in their own tree, other trees held five or six. Leaves grew from many and on one or two, fruits sprouted from their tops. The pirates struggled in vain, bound within the trunk of the wooden prison, unable to anything but cry out for help or simply cry. Luffy, on the other hand, looked up and around at all the pirate he had imprisoned on his own, the cheerful grin having never faded as he uttered two words. "Tree Trap."

"L-Luffy?" Came Coby's shaking voice, drawing the straw hatted boys attention. "How..?"

Luffy grinned at his one word question. "I told you, I'm a tree person. I ate the Tree Tree fruit."

Coby opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by the sounds of cannon fire in the distance. He frowned at the sound, but the sudden explosions directly next to the ship prevented him from saying a single word.

"Crap." Luffy muttered. "That's probably the marines." For the first time since Coby had seen him, Luffy didn't seem to be as confident as before. "And I don't have a boat..." He sulked.

Ah, that's why.

"Oh man." Coby whimpered as realization of his own predicament dawned on him. "If the marines find me here, they'll think I'm a part of Alvida's crew!" Panic set in as he hugged himself tightly, before he perked up. "Wait! Luffy, there should be some boats on the side of the ship in case of emergencies! We can get away in that!" He said excitedly, eager to escape possible incarceration.

Luffy grinned. "Alright, let's go!" He shouted with a chuckled, grabbing Coby by the shoulder and, before he could protest, reached his arm up and was seized by a newly grown branch from the deck and both were lifted into the air and tossed towards the side railing of the ship, all to the soundtrack of Coby's screams of terror and Luffy's joy filled laugh.

Before Coby's fears were realized and they sailed over the side of the ship and into the water, Luffy's hand grew into a branch and latched onto the railing and held the two of them in the air above the side of the cruise liner. After a brief second of looking for a boat, the two boys found a small sail boat already lowered into the water. Granted there was already an orange haired girl in it with a massive brown sack, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, and so Luffy launched then towards it, Coby screaming all the way and Luffy cheerfully announcing "Look out below!"

* * *

Nami had smiled to herself as she finished lowering the row boat into the ocean and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, her treasure secured and ready to go. Just as the marines showed up too! Perfect timing! But what she was not expecting was the freakishly tall guy and a pink haired midget to suddenly slam into her little boat, the poor thing nearly snapping in half under the impact as it rocked violently back and forth.

"What the hell?!" She shouted at the pair as the boat settled. "Who the hell are you guys?! What are you doing on my boat?!" She demanded hotly.

"Oh, sorry." Luffy said with no remorse behind his words whatsoever as he gave Nami a large, sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. "But the marines are here and we're in kind of a rush. Would you mind giving us a ride to the nearest island?" He asked with an almost childlike innocence.

But before anyone could say anymore, more cannon balls exploded nearby, two punching massive holes in Alvida's ship and one knocking over the mast on the cruise ship.

"Crap." Nami gritted her teeth. "I don't have time for this! Whatever, just help me get us out of here!" She ordered as she moved about getting the ship ready for sailing.

"Thanks!" Luffy grinned that cheeky grin of his and moved about to help sett up the sail, the only part of sailing he actually knew how to do and that was only from watching the ships that occasionally stopped by Foosha village. The marines continued to rain cannon fire upon the two ships, but within a few minutes, the trio had their small little boat catching the wind and skimming along the surface of the water at a brisk speed, with Nami steering and Luffy and Coby listening to her orders for adjustments before they were far enough away from the danger zone as to relax somewhat.

Sighing and wiping the sweat from his brow, Coby looked up at Luffy, who still wore that smile. He was leaning back on the side of the boat and looking to the horizon beside the pinkette, the two of them balancing out the oddly heavy sack on the other side of the boat. Nami hadn't said anything since they had been able to calm down, seemingly focusing on the task at hand of navigating while occasionally stealing glances at her two unwanted passengers.

Deciding to make idle conversation, Coby broke the ice. "So Luffy." He began, well aware that not only Luffy, but Nami was watching him as well. "If you want to claim the One Piece, that means that you're heading to the Grand Line, right?" He asked, neither of them noticing Nami frowning at them.

"Yeah." Luffy confirmed absentmindedly as he returned to staring out at the horizon.

"That place is called the graveyard of pirates." Coby pointed out, Nami's unnoticed frown deepening at the mention of pirates and her suspicion of her two passengers growing into something possibly hostile.

"Yeah, that's why I need a strong crew." Luffy's smile grew a little as he turned back to Coby. "That pirate hunter guy, what's he like?" The teen asked, and Nami felt her perspective change somewhat.

" _If they're looking for a pirate hunter, they couldn't be pirates, right?_ " She thought, now more confused than suspicious. " _If they want the One Piece, then their pirates. So why look for a pirate hunter?_ "

"You mean Zoro?" Coby asked, Luffy nodding for him to continue. "I heard he's being held at a marine base." Coby mentioned offhandedly.

"Huh, so he's not that strong..." Luffy muttered, clearly disappointed as he scratched his chin.

"Not at all!" Coby shouted, sitting bolt upright as though someone had run an electric current through his back. "He's a terrifying beast of a man! A demon in flesh!" The pinkette exclaimed, an underlying tone of fear in his voice as he suddenly frowned. "Why are you asking me this?" He asked, confused as to why the self professed future pirate king wanted to know about a pirate hunter.

Luffy grinned back at Coby. "Well, there are at least three positions I need filled before I head to the Grand Line." He announced, sitting straighter and holding out three fingers, indicating to the first. "First, a first mate." He then pointed to the second finger. "Then a navigator, cause I'm not so good at that." He admitted as he moved to the last finger. "And a cook. The cook is important, cause I like food." Luffy announced.

Coby frowned at this. "Well that's true, you will need those three, although I don't know if there's a chef alive who can sate your appetite..." Coby trailed off as he remembered watching Luffy empty out the entire kitchen of the cruise ship on his own. Luffy, however, simply laughed at this. "But I still don't know how pirate hunter Zoro fits into this." Coby reasoned.

"Simple." Luffy shrugged. "Like I said, I need a first mate, and he needs to be strong." He stated, Coby's eyes widened in realization.

"B-B-But that's impossible! Impo-" A solid ' _Thump_ ' left Coby nursing a bruised head. "Sorry." He muttered dejectedly.

Nami, however, had given up trying to come to her own conclusions. "Excuse me, but are you guys... You know..." She trailed off leaving the sentence unfinished. Luffy spared her a brief glanced before reclining back against the side of the boat, his hat covering his face and his hands behind his head and he relaxed.

"Pirates?" He offered.

"Yeah."

A grin stretched across his face. "Well, Coby here actually wants to be a marine." Luffy said, earning a surprised look from Nami.

"Wait, if you want to be a marine, then why did you run from them back there?" She asked as she pointed back over her shoulder in the direction they had come.

"Well, you see..." Coby trailed off, squirming slightly under the scrutinizing attention. "A few years ago, I was going fishing near my home town, and I stepped onto a small boat, but it turned out that boat was owned by the Alvida pirates and, well... They kinda made me the cabin boy." He summarized. "And it if the marines caught me back there, they probably would have just locked me up with the rest of Alvida and her crew."

Nami gave him a perfectly blank look that conveyed that she considered him a complete idiot for doing something so stupid before she turned to Luffy. "Well, what abou- Land!" She suddenly interrupted herself, standing up to point to the dark spot on the horizon that was slowly taking shape.

Soon, both Luffy and Coby stood as well, the two of them watching the shape of buildings take place on the relatively small island. But as small as it may have been, looking rather stout, it was obvious that many tall buildings dominated the island, particularly to twin chimney looking buildings near to one side.

"Yotsuba island." Nami muttered, eyeing the objects of her next target, while Coby's eyes widened at the name.

"So then that's the 153rd marine base." He said in slight awe as he watched the massive buildings of the base come into clearer view the closer they got.

"Is this where I'll find this Zoro guy?" Luffy, not at all phased at being a pirate about to make landfall on an island home to a marine base. Coby merely swallowed and nodded his head. "Good." The straw hatted teen said with a grin.

* * *

Luffy grinned as he strolled through the market district of Shells town, stalls and merchandise lined the sides of the street as salespeople reeled in customers with sweet talk and quality products. He enjoyed the feel of the town, even as several people gawked at his unusual height. Normally, upon being on solid ground, he would have roots in the ground as he walked, picking up nutrients in place of food, but he felt this bustling town would most likely find the sight somewhat irregular, to say the least. Instead, he simply walked on normally, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the feel of the busy street. It felt carefree, lively and relaxed. Everything that Coby was currently not.

"Hey, Luffy, please just forget about getting him to join your crew." The pinkette midget begged as he jogged to keep up with Luffy's long paced steps. The two of them stood out quite a bit, being strangers in town. Their number would be three, but as soon as they made landfall, Nami had secured the boat, thrown a tarp over it to hide the large sack that Luffy guessed was full of treasure, and had taken off.

"Well I haven't decided if I want him on my crew or not, so relax." Luffy said as he caught sight of some fresh produce for sale. He did like pears, and he hadn't found a pear tree to assimilate so he could grow his own yet... "I need to know his character first. If he's a good guy or not." Luffy finished as he restrained himself from buying the entire stall of pears, and settled for picking one.

"He was arrested because he's a bad guy!" Coby shouted in frustration.

Taking a bite, Luffy nodded in appreciation at the crunchy, juicy fruit. "Mmm, tasty." He approved, flicking a coin to the woman running the stall. "I wonder if that Zoro guy is inside the base..." He muttered to himself, but before he could ponder the thought further, everybody within earshot recoiled in what looked like fear, staring at him with wide eyes that shook as they fixed on him.

"It seems that Zoro's name is taboo here..." Coby whispered to Luffy as he took in the sights of the people around them. He found it odd. What was the point in being afraid of a name? Names couldn't do anything.

"Anyway." Luffy began, walking away from the seemingly terrified civilians without a second thought, Coby nervously following him. "Let's get you to the marines base." He smiled as he finished off his pear, core and all, as he resumed his leisurely stroll down the road.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure I'm ready..." Coby admitted, twisting the hem of his shirt about in his hands as he eyes the ground between his feet. "But I have heard that Captain Morgan is in command of this marine base." But, much to Coby's dismay, as soon as the marine Captains name was heard, not only did those within earshot flinch and backpedal, but most of the people on the entire street did.

Luffy, watching this with a raised eyebrow, soon found himself chuckling as he walked away. "What a strange town." He commented merrily.

"That's strange." Coby muttered, holding his chin in thought. "I can understand being afraid of Zoro, but why would they be scared of a marine Captain?" The midget wondered aloud. Luffy, though, was having flash backs to days he had been put through the most grueling of trials and tribulations, all at the orders of a marine Vice-Admiral. A shudder ran down the pirates spine. "This worries me..." Coby murmured.

* * *

"Well, this is it." Luffy sighed, his head tilted back as he stared up at the foreboding iron gate that stood before the marine base, with large, over sized lettering for 'Justice' slapped across it in black paint. It was almost impressive to Luffy. Almost. It probably would have if they used iron for the wall as well instead of the much easier to break stone. Unfortunately, only one thought really came to mind as he stared up at the gate with Coby beside him.

"Think they're compensating for something?" The wood man asked with an amazing display of self control as he restrained himself from snickering at his own joke. Coby, however, was less amused by the cheap shot, as he stopped staring up at the gate in marvel to shoot Luffy a scowl, but said nothing. What else would he expect of a pirate if not to insult the marines.

But as he tuned back to the iron gates, it dawned upon Coby that as a marine, he and Luffy would be enemies from here on out. It was a pity, really. He had begun to enjoy Luffy's company, with all his odd little quirks and his occasionally scary devil fruit power. He wasn't a bad guy, yet here would be where their ways separated. "This is were we part ways, Luffy." He began as he felt tears stinging his eyes and quickly made to wipe them away, not seeing the odd look he got from Luffy, who then shrugged and walked over to the wall. "We've only known each other a short while, but-"

Coby abruptly stopped as he noticed Luffy, instead of listening to the pinkette's heartfelt goodbye, had turned his legs into tree trunks and grown them until his head peered over the top of the wall.

"Hey Luffy, what are you doing?!" Coby cried out in panic. Luffy was a pirate, the marines would arrest him on sight if they saw him! " _Well, I suppose they won't actually._ " Coby realized. " _He's not known at all, they'll just see him as some guy looking over their wall in a suspicious manner._ "

"I'm gonna look for Zoro." Luffy said with a casual indifference, a hand on his hat as he looked about the base.

"He wouldn't be out here." Coby sighed, questioning just how smart Luffy was. "He's probably in solitary confinement deep underground."

"There he is!" Luffy cheered as suddenly, his tree trunk legs shrunk back down and became flesh and blood once more. "Perfect!" He grinned as he ran closer to where he had seen the famed swordsman. After running roughly a hundred meters along the wall, Luffy stopped, his legs growing into tree trunks again until he was looking over the wall, his entire upper body leaning on the stone casually as he stared intensely at the man bound to a wooden cross in the field of the base.

Coby glowered up at Luffy. Not only was he seven and a half feet tall naturally, but he could grow even higher at the slightest whim! It wasn't fair... Before he could mope anymore, however, Coby was surprised to see Luffy's feet turn into wood too, before digging into the ground much like the roots of a tree would, and Luffy's legs melded together, growing until they were but a large, singular tree trunk with Luffy's torso sicking out the top instead of branches and leaves.

" _Huh. I wonder why he did that..._ " Coby wondered. Slowly, he looked up to find Luffy staring back down at him.

"Did you change your mind or something?" Luffy called down.

"What? What are you talking about?" Coby asked with a frown.

"You said you wanted to join the marines, so go on!" Luffy said with an encouraging smile as he stunk back down, but his legs remained that of a tree trunk. "You've got a dream of being an Admiral, of pursuing your justice and capturing pirates." The pirate said as he rested a hand on the midget's shoulder. "So go on, live your dream. I know I'm going to live mine, and when I become the king of the pirates, then we'll meet again on the high seas. Besides, keep hanging around me and they'll think you're a pirate." He grinned

Coby looked Luffy in the eyes, tears threatening to spill again before he nodded furiously. "I will! I will become an Admiral! I will pursue justice and then when we're both the greatest pirate and marine, we'll meet and battle!" Coby boldly declared, his chest puffing out in pride as Luffy took his hand back. "But until then, Luffy..." He said, much quieter but still proud, still looking Luffy in the eye with pure will and determination as a single tear rolled down his cheek. "I won't forget what you've done for me. Ever." His voice was chocked and cracked, but he manage to get it out, and Luffy returned the smile that grew upon Coby's face.

"Until then, Coby." Luffy then held out his hand, the promise offered.

"Until then, Luffy." Coby clasped Luffy's hand and the two shook, their futures bound to be intertwined from that moment forth. With all said and done, Coby turned and began walking to the large iron gate with a sense of purpose and a steel-clad resolve. Luffy smiled after the small pink haired boy fondly. He'd remember this promise, but for now, he pressed his lips into a tight line of determination. He needed a crew first, then he'd journey to become the pirate king and then battle Coby when he became an Admiral, and all that was done, he'd return his hat to Shanks.

Luffy smiled. He liked that plan. It left plenty of room for the adventures he wanted to have in between. But first, his first mate needed to be found.

His tree trunk legs growing once more, he peered over the fence. " _So that's Zoro..._ " He thought as he studied the man bound by the thick ropes. Zoro certainly looked intimidating, with his low hanging head and tanned skin, his dark bandanna on his head and a green sash around his waist, he looked like a sleeping dragon. Luffy grinned. He wanted to poke the sleeping dragon. But before he could do anything, a ladder was suddenly propped against the fence beside him.

Looking wide eyed, Luffy watched as a small girl with short pigtails climbed up the ladder, and he could swear she was humming the theme to some spy movie. It was something about impossible tasks... or was it missions? Meh. Watching on, the girl made it to the top of the ladder, turned him and held a finger to her lips. Nodding in understanding, he grinned in amusement as the girl threw a rope over the side of the wall and climbed down.

" _Interesting..._ " Luffy thought as he watched her scramble across the field, something clutched tightly to her chest until she reached Zoro, but Luffy couldn't see any trace of fear in her. She wasn't scared of Zoro, no, she seemed to be more... happy. Curious, he watched the interaction as the girl unwrapped the little package to reveal two rice balls that she then offered to the bound swordsman.

" _Huh..._ " Through listening to the conversation that took place, Luffy learned that Zoro had been bound to the cross and hadn't eaten anything in weeks. Of course, Luffy could do the same, but only because he'd have roots feeding him everything he needed, water included, like he was doing at the moment. But without that advantage, he'd give himself a couple of hours, maximum, before dying. He'd admit, he was impressed by how long Zoro had apparently gone on without anything.

But the moment was ruined by a blonde man with a hilariously ugly shaped face and hair, wearing a horrible purple suit and flanked by two marines. Luffy watched as the situation devolved, the blonde man stealing and stomping the rice balls into the ground, belittling her because she apparently used a wrong ingredient, and then, much to Luffy's anger, ordered one of the marines to throw the little girl over the fence.

Acting quickly, his fingers grew long and tangled together before he threw it into the air, a large net of thin, woven branches taking to the air to catch the girl as she passed over the wall. Willing the tree trunk to bend, he followed her momentum to the ground before his legs emerged from the wood to roll along the dirt, his body cradling her tightly in the net of wood.

After coming to a stop, Luffy slowly rose, untangling the girl as the branches shrunk back into his fingers, leaving her sitting on the ground, blinking her wide eyes several times to understand what had just happened.

"Are you alright?" Luffy asked as he knelt down in front of the girl, looking her over for injuries. She didn't have any he could see, but still, it never hurt to be cautious. "Are you hurt?"

Slowly, the little girl looked up to meet Luffy's eyes, and blinked. "I'm alright." She said, although she sounded very distracted and slightly spaced out. "How did you..." Luffy frowned. How would he explain devil fruit power to a child? He was horrible at explaining things! He mentally shrugged to himself. When in doubt, go for blunt.

"I ate a devil fruit." He stated. The girl frowned, looking even more confused than ever.

"What's a-"

"Ask your parents." He advised quickly, not particularly feeling like divulging all his knowledge of devil fruits to a small girl for the sake of her understanding of what he could do. "Anyway, you should probably head home before the marines try to hurt you again. Do you know how to get home from here?" He asked, hoping the girls stupor was short lived.

"Yes..." She muttered, slowly nodding her head as she did.

"That's good." Luffy smiled as he stood up and offered the girl his hand. "Come on, let's get you home." He said in the most assuring voice he could must. The little girl smiled eagerly and took his hand. He was so much taller than her that he had to bend down for her to do so, but he didn't much care. "So what were you doing giving food to the guy the marines locked up?" He asked as they made their way through the town, Luffy having to walk slowly, taking one step for each of her five.

"Big brother Zoro isn't a bad man!" The girl said heatedly, earning a raised eyebrow from Luffy. "It was all the meanie Helmeppo's fault! His dad's Captain Morgan, the big mean guy in charge of the marine base here. He's mean to people and makes them do things they don't want, like paying him heaps of money cause he think he's great, but he's not." The girl ranted, Luffy listening with interest the entire time.

"But because of that, Helmeppo thinks he can do want ever he wants! He brought a pet wolf, and then he brought into mommy's cafe and when I went to give him his food, it attacked me! But then, bid brother Zoro saved me by cupping the wolf up!" The girls eyes lit up as she recalled her rescue. Luffy, now wanting to beat Helmeppo into a bloody pulp, felt a small smile tug at his lips as he watched her, until her expression fell, the girl suddenly looking more melancholy.

"But because of that, Helmeppo threatened to start executing people if Zoro didn't agree to what he wanted. Now, Zoro has to survive being tied up for a month without food or water, but he's only got a week to g- Oh, we're home!" The girls face lit up as she ran to the cafe in front of him, leaving Luffy behind to think on what he had heard.

There were several things he now knew he was going to do. Firstly, he was going to beat this Helmeppo guy bloody. Secondly, he'd raze the marine base, and thirdly, Zoro would be joining his crew. He sounded like a good guy, and with his reputation, he had to be strong. Luffy frowned. Maybe he should swap two and three around and get Zoro to show him how strong he was. Then again, Coby would be in that base too...

Luffy nodded as he headed for the cafe, thinking of grabbing a bite to eat before following a new plan. He couldn't destroy the base with Coby in it, so he'd just have to do it after making sure Coby wasn't in it. His plan set, Luffy opened the door, and stopped. He blinked at what he found inside. It was full, for sure, but everyone looked stiff, uncomfortable and were sweating nervously. All because of who sat in the middle of the room, his feet propped up on the table and he loudly laughed at something he'd said, food and spittle falling from his mouth, and two marines at his back.

Helmeppo. The first person on his shit list so far. A large, shit-eating grin broke out onto Luffy's face as he ducked through the door unnoticed, but he paused as he heard the next sentence coming from the blonde. Slowly, the grin faded from Luffy's face.

"You know, I think I'll execute Zoro tomorrow." He said aloud as if he were discussing the weather. Luffy watched on, seeing no hint of taking back what he had just heard as Helmeppo laughed. Luffy lowered his head as his fists clenched, his hat shadowing his eyes as he seethed.

Slowly, his arm shifted from flesh and bone into a tree branch, growing until it reached the ground and kept going, burrowing through the lino and underground as his feet planted roots below them. Seconds passed as he remained just a meter inside the door, his large grin making his silence somewhat eerie to those who had noticed him, until their eyes widened upon seeing his arm. But before anyone could say anything, four large tendrils erupted from the ground, shaking the earth and spraying dirt into the air as they rose.

Each as thick as a man, two lunged for each marine, who were both in shock at their sudden appearance and immediately engulfed in living wood, the tendrils wrapping around them and joining together, completely encompassing the two soldiers before falling still. Helmeppo, having fallen from his seat in fright and scrambled backwards whilst screaming the entire time, looked up at the two spires of wood, the only evidence of their prisoners being their head sticking out of the top.

"Tree trap." Luffy muttered as his arm reformed, his grin returning as he caught the look in Helmeppo's eyes.

"M-My daddy w-w-will he-heat abou-t this!" He shrieked in terror, his face losing all its color, the blonde pointing a shaking finger at Luffy. Luffy, for his part, just grinning and slowly shook his head. Before Helmeppo open his mouth again, hundreds of of thin roots lashed out from around him, latching onto him and growing further to wrap around him and beck into the earth, pining him to the ground as they slowly crept up Helmeppo's body as he screamed in a higher pitch than Luffy had ever heard anyone scream before, and he had heard the screams coming from Grey Terminal when it burned.

"I heard about what you've done, Helmeppo." Luffy began once the root had wrapped around every part of the blonde body sans his head. "Time for your comeuppance."

"No! You can't!" Luffy frowned, turning to find a brown haired woman behind the counter, a pleading look on his face. "If you do this, his father would take his anger out on not only you, but the entire town as well!" She begged. Luffy then noticed that behind her, the small girl from earlier was hidden behind her legs, peeking out from the side with a fearful look.

"She's right you know!" Helmeppo chimed in, snot running from his nose to his lips and tears on his cheeks and he tried to look confident by smiling, only to end up with some horrible look of insanity. He looked like he was about to continue, but a root quickly gagged him.

"Don't worry." Luffy assured, smiling his carefree smile. "Once I'm done with this guy, I'm grabbing Zoro and then we're taking down everyone in the marine base, Morgan included."

The people in the cafe, despite their fear of what the boy had done, looked to each other, both hope and apprehension written of their faces as they shared muted conversations among themselves. Helmeppo let lose a muffled string of words Luffy couldn't decipher. Curious, the root shifted out of his mouth.

"That won't work!" Helmeppo announced, his smile back in full force. "Not only do you not stand a chance against my daddy, even with with your weird powers, but Zoro's a swordsman, they have honor and pride! And he wouldn't take you side anyway, he's a pirate hunter! And even if you looked past that, he wouldn't do anything until he's fulfilled his end of our bargain! His honor and pride as a swordsman demand it!"

Luffy gave him a bland look. "You still call you old man 'Daddy'? How old are you?" He asked incredulously. Slowly, silence settled into the cafe as everyone looked to the now uncomfortably shifting Helmeppo.

"Sh-Shut up!"

"Besides." Luffy started anew. "I'm pretty sure Zoro's gonna consider your agreement over once he learns you planned to execute him, which goes against your deal." The tree man pointed out. "And unless you dad knows haki, then he's not gonna be a problem." Although he had no idea what this 'haki' was or how it would help in a fight, Helmeppo paled even further, something Luffy didn't think was possible considering he was sheet white after what the pirate had done to his guards. "Now then, I think think that while I'm kicking ass, the good people of this town can decide what happens to you." He smirked.

Slowly, the roots holding him down began to push out from the ground growing larger and thicker as they shifted about. Soon, he was hanging in the air with his hands and feet encased in thick hardwood as the roots conglomerated into four large, trunk like tendrils that left the blonde suspended in the air in an 'X' shape. Helmeppo sobbed and whimpered with fear as the townspeople watched on in a mixture of fear of Luffy's powers and satisfaction on seeing Helmeppo get what was coming to him.

Luffy grinned at the now eye level Helmeppo. "Well guys. he's yours." He announced as a pineapple grew from the teens wrist. "Have fun." Tearing it open barehanded, he began to scoop out handfuls of pineapple and eat as he turned and began walking out of the cafe. "I've got a swordsman to recruit."

* * *

If there was one thing Zoro had expected to happen not seven days before he won the little wager he had bet with that blonde prick, Helmeppo, it was for a mass of roots to burst from the ground. The swordsman had been staring mournfully down at the dirty rice left over from Ririka's rice balls when the soil shifted, lifting up and cracking as what started off as a small spire of roots tangled together to form a point.

Slowly, the roots continued to grow out from the dirt, growing taller and wider until it stood a solid two feet taller than him and was as wide and a mans shoulders. It was then that the roots began to shift about in place, molding themselves into a different shape until, within a few seconds, a thin, lanky teen stood in front of him. "The sun's finally getting to me. I'm hallucinating." He said resolutely.

"Nope." The boy grinned as he sat down cross legged in front of Zoro. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy." He introduced himself. "And you're Roronoa Zoro. I've come to make you an offer." Luffy announced as, much to Zoro's surprise, several apples began to grow from Luffy's body. Picking one of them, Luffy held it out, offering it to Zoro. "I want you to join my crew."

Zoro stared down at Luffy with a blank look on his face. If he was seeing things right, some freakishly tall kid had popped out of the ground like a damn weed, grown fruit from his body and asked him to join his crew. The hell was he supposed to say to that?! Sighing, the swordsman resigned himself to his hallucination. " _Might as well play along. Not like I've got much better to do._ " He thought.

"Look, kid-"

"Luffy."

"Yeah sure, but I'm kinda busy right now. I'v-"

"I know what's going on." Luffy interrupted. Again. Zoro gritted his teeth. Geez this kid was getting on his nerves. "But Helmeppo's planning on going back on his word. He's going to execute you tomorrow." At this, Zoro's eyes widened before quickly narrowing in suspicion.

"Why should I believe you?" He growled. "I staked my honor on this, my pride as a swordsman. Why should I just take what you say at face value?"

"Fair enough." Luffy shrugged, still holding the apple in front of Zoro as he picked another and began eating himself, silently berating himself for not eating anything in the cafe. "But while you're bound by you word and honor as a swordsman, Helmeppo isn't." At these words, Zoro had to concede his point. "And after everything you've heard him say and seen him do, did you really trust him to keep his end of the deal?"

" _That's... an excellent point._ " Zoro silently lamented.

"Right now, Helmeppo's a little tied up in the cafe. I can cut you free if you want, but there's this guy, Captain Morgan, I think he might be a bit of a problem." Luffy grinned. "But it's up to you. What do you want to do?"

Zoro hung his head in silent contemplation. He couldn't go back on his word, but if Helmeppo backed out on his end, then Zoro was free of from dishonoring himself. Then again, this could all be an elaborate lie. If so, then he could just cut the kid up and end up right back at where he is now. But if he was telling the truth, if he is actually real and not some heat induced hallucination...

A gleam shone through Zoro's eyes for a brief moment, bringing a smile to Luffy's before the swordsman's head lurched forward but two inches, straining himself as he did so, but his teeth sank into the fresh apple nonetheless. His eyes widened as sweet juice seeped out and into his mouth, his eyes nearly watering. After nearly a month without food, a fresh apple might as well be the best tasting thing he had ever known.

"I'm gonna take that as a 'Yes.'" Luffy grinned as he slowly rose. Like he had done so many times throughout his life, Luffy shaped and molded the wood of his arm until from the elbow down, it was a thin, compressed wooden blade. After some careful and somewhat slow swipes later, Zoro was free from his bindings. He stumbled forward a bit, wide eyed and shocked as Luffy caught him. Looking up at the lanky teen, Zoro was met with another apple. "You're gonna need your strength back, and quick." Luffy grinned.

Swallowing what was left of his first fruit, Zoro straightened himself. "I'm going to need my swords." He announced as he held the second fruit in his hand. It felt so real... Was he really free or was this just a freakishly convincing dream as he hung on that post, knocking on deaths door? Shaking his head, he quickly bit down on the fruit. He had never had a dream so vivid and real before. Until he was proven otherwise, he'd treat this as reality.

"Any idea where they are?" Luffy asked as he looked about the base. His roots were deep underground and spread out like a labyrinth, hidden under each and every building, just waiting to grow strong at his whim. He could take this base on his own, but he wouldn't. Not yet. Coby was still here and now he needed to find Zoro's swords.

"That blonde prick took them when we made our bet." Zoro snarled as he finished his third fruit, having plucked his from the back of Luffy's back.

"Well he didn't have it when I saw him, so they should be somewhere in this base, right?" Zoro nodded in agreement at the sound deduction. "Well then, I hope you're in the mood for a bit of fighting, cause it looks like we're going to have to go door to door." Luffy grinned.

This was good. Ever since Shanks had finished his basic training and slowly stopped visiting and Luffy grew strong enough with his powers to equal, but most of the time beat Ace, Luffy's grandfather had been the only one that really put up a decent challenge. This Captain Morgan guy... " _I hope he's strong. I could use a good fight._ " Although he doubted it. This was the east blue, and according to his gramps, hardly anyone here had even heard of haki, let alone believed it was real.

"I can fight hand to hand just fine." Zoro said. "But against marines armed with swords and guns? I'm gonna need something." Luffy took this as something of a challenge.

"Lets see if this works..." He grinned cryptically as he hunched over slightly. Slowly, from his back, twin long, lightly curved protrusions began to emerge. Zoro's eyes widened as he watched, but didn't comment until finally, twin wooden katana fell to the ground, perfectly shaped and flawless. Raising an eyebrow, Zoro wordlessly picked them up. Turning them over in his hand and giving several experimental swings, Zoro was taken aback.

They were well balanced, comfortably heavy and well crafted. With a gentle touch, he thumbed the base of the blade and was surprised when he felt his skin pierced, as though such a light touch had given him a paper cut. But there was one thing bugging him in all of this.

"What are you?" Zoro asked as he looked up to meets Luffy's gaze, who seemed indifferent with the question. "You pop out of the ground like a damn flower, turn you arm into a wooden blade and grow fruit out of you body, and now this?" He listed, gesturing to the twin swords in his hands. Luffy, for his part, merely sighed.

"Have you heard of devil fruits?" He asked.

Zoro gave him a piercing look, accompanied by a heavy silence. "Are you saying their real?" He finally said. Luffy nodded.

"I ate the tree tree fruit. I'm a tree man now." He explained. "I can create, turn into and manipulate any type of tree I want, so long as I assimilate it by merging with one."

"Huh." Zoro nodded, not bothering to over think the potentially world shattering revelation that fruits that gave people reality defying powers actually existed. He open to all things that could make him stronger, mythical fruits included. An inflexible swordsman who refused to accept things he had seen to be reality often broke. That and he still wasn't sure if this wasn't a dream.

"While I'm not sure how wood's gonna hold up against the real thing..." He trailed off, wondering how wooden swords could be as heavy as steel blades. "It's better than nothing." He finished. He preferred three, but it wouldn't feel right to wield his signature three-sword style without _Wado Ichimonji_. "Let's go." He said with a determined glint in his eyes as Luffy handed him another fruit, a banana this time.

"Let's go get your swords." Luffy grinned as he cracked his knuckles before his body began to twist and churn, malforming to become an amalgamation of horror right before Zoro's very eyes. "Nightmare of Elm!"

* * *

Captain 'Axe-Hand' Morgan took in a deep breath as he watched on with pride. Before him, nigh on a hundred marines struggled, pulling and heaving on the ropes as on the other end, a massive, fifty foot statue of himself was being erected upon the top of the marines base. His chest swelled and puffed out, his back straight as he stood tall and unmoving, his axe-hand held across his heart.

"I am great." He announced to himself, a gust of wind accompanying his announcement to billow out his captains coat that he wore as a cape, the marines about him shaking nervously in his presence.

"Yes sir! Well said, Captain Morgan, Sir!" The nearest marine complimented with a sharp salute.

"After years of construction, it is finally complete. A symbol of my greatness!" The Captain continued, boasting his ego to the heavens. "Listen up!" He shouted, swinging his axe-hand about in a circle to point at those around them, the marines having to duck to avoid being decapitated. "Rank is everything in this world! Now, as Captain and the highest ranking man here, I am the greatest man on this island! My word is law, my deeds are just, because I am great!" Evidently he didn't know many more words of praise aside from 'Great'.

"Captain Morgan!" A young marine shouted as he burst from the door, beads of sweat upon his brow underneath the gaze of the sun and the cold piercing of the eyes of his Captain.

"Speak!" Morgan barked furious his speech had been interrupted.

"S-Sir!" The marine saluted. "A situation has arisen in the town! It's your son! He and his guards were beaten and are now being paraded through the town on posts! The townspeople are gathering and throwing food and stones at them!" He announced. All around him, the marines of the 153rd branch stiffened. They knew it was only a matter of time before the townspeople began to grow furious with the tyranny of their Captain and revolted. They dreaded the day, for it was the day that their Captain ordered them to slaughter the towns populace.

"Bah!" Morgan sneered, a furious rage etching onto his face. "I don't care for my pathetic son, the ungrateful wretches can do what they wish with him and those failures that guarded him. But if they revolt, they challenge my greatness! I will not stand for it!" Turning about, he addressed the men lifting his statue. "Men! Lower the statue to the ground! Carefully! If there's so much as a scratch on it, then I'll kill the lot of you!" Spinning about to face those empty handed, he roared. "Ready yourselves! We're going to slaughter those traitors!"

A grim air set in above those atop to the roof. They knew the choice before them now. This, the moment in which they would decide their fates: Live a life full of regret, fear and probable imprisonment, or deny the tyrant's orders, save the people and probably die themselves. They looked among themselves, none wishing to chose, but all wanting to be better than what they were.

"Well, what are you waiting for?!" Morgan roared, and suddenly it dawned upon him. They were harboring treason in their hearts. His expression darkened, his fury long forgotten as wrath became him, black and merciless. "So that's how it is, is it?" He seethed through gritted teeth. The marines shifted, the choice had to be made, and soon. Live and lose themselves, or stay true and die?

Fortunately, they didn't need to make the choice, as at that moment the entire base shook and rumbled. Struggling to catch themselves on the suddenly unstable structure, the marines, Captain included, looked about for the source of the disturbance. Then the shaking stopped. "What the hell was that?" One of the marines voiced the thoughts of all.

Their answer came as the door from the roof into the base suddenly leaped off its hinges, flying across the roof to crash into Morgan and bounce off of his large frame and fall from the roof. Every head turned to look at the doorway, and every pair of eyes, sans Morgan, widened upon who they saw.

"Hey Zoro, anything in there?!" Came a young voice from behind the swordsman as he stared out at the gathering of naval personnel. Zoro blinked at them. The marines blinked back.

"Nah, just another bunch of shitty marines and their dumb Captain on the roof." He sighed in disappointment. A vein bulged on Morgan forehead.

"Kill him!" He roared, pointing his axe-hand at the intruder. "I want his head mounted on on my wall by dinner!"

Zoro smirked as he crouched and readied his two wooden swords. While unconventional, they worked damn well. "Hey Luffy? I'm just gonna deal with these idiots for a minute, you keep looking." He called over his shoulder, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. With a roar, the assorted marines drew their weapons, most with swords or pistols.

"Alright! Have fun!" Luffy shouted back.

Wordlessly, Zoro leaped out from the door frame and into the oncoming swarm of white and blue uniforms with a battle cry. "Bull..." He began as he lunged, the twin blades his hands held out like the horns of a steer. "Needle!" He seemed to blur through the writhing mass of marines, heading directly for the man in command. Moran watched in unrestrained hatred as his men were flung aside like rag dolls in the aftermath of Zoro's charge, baring his teeth and growling as he brought his axe-hand in front of his chest just in time to block to two wooden swords from skewering him, like so many of his men had been.

"Roronoa Zoro." Morgan spat like he had tasted bile. "You should have been executed as soon as you were caught!" He roared, heaving to shove the blades man away from him for a moment of respite. But Zoro would have none of it. He surged forward once more, like a hound on its bleeding prey, lashing out with terrible speed and precision. His arms a blur, he continued to press forward, forcing Morgan on the defensive as he constantly gave ground in an effort to avoid being hacked and slashed into pieces, his muscles screaming in protest under the constant strain of a lengthy battle.

"Ha!" Zoro laughed, a bloodthirsty grin on his face as he pressed his advantage. "The likes of you could never kill me!" At these words, he leaped backwards, finally yielding his advantage after nearly ten minutes of constant swinging, panting lightly with a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his skin. He carefully examined his swords. Although wood, they had held up against proper swords exceptionally well, having but a myriad of indents along the blade. With their weight and surprising resilience, he figured Luffy must have made them extremely dense. Looking up from the swords, Zoro found Morgan to be a stark contrast to himself.

The overly proud and confident man sucked in great gulps of air and looked as though he had just been doused in water. With this brief reprieve, Morgan was able to assess the damage done to his men, and soon found himself fuming. Each and every man who had attacked Zoro was on the ground, bleeding from large cuts and whimpering from massive bruises.

"Traitors..." Morgan hissed through clenched teeth. "Inept, useless damn TRAITORS!" His voice grew louder until it was a mighty bellow, veins throbbing under his skin. "Once I'm done with this piece of trash!" He pointed his axe-hand to Zoro. "I'll execute you all my self!" He looked as though he was going to continue, but Zoro had already heard enough, his voice was just annoying at this point.

Placing both of his swords over the opposite shoulder, holding his forearms in an 'X' in front of his chest, Zoro charged straight for Morgan who, being but one leap away, didn't have time to raise his axe in defense or even dodge. "Purgatory Demon Slash!" The swordsman announced as he slide to a stop behind Morgan. The entire world seemed to hold its breath for a moment, frozen upon the image of the two men standing so still.

"No... I'm too great... to fall." Morgan groaned before twin bursts of blood from his horizontal wounds painted the ground at his feet crimson. Zoro grunted as, at the same time, the wooden swords shattered into splinters. A pity. For wood, they did a hell of a fine job. It was then he heard the 'thump' of Morgan falling to his knees for a few seconds before completing his decent, his body hitting the floor.

"Hmph. No one's too great to fall." Zoro huffed, his thoughts briefly travelling to all those times his childhood rival had bested him. "It's that fall that makes us who we are, and the climb back up that makes us great." He said as he shook the memories from his head. " _Gotta find Luffy and my swords._ " The swordsman thought as he turned about, walking past Morgans fallen form to find that straw hat kid.

"Y-You did it..." Came a trembling, terrified and awed voice. Coming to a stop, Zoro raised an eyebrow as he laid eyes upon a marine to his right, propping himself up against the rail of the roof. He was staring with eyed at the swordsman, his hands over the large horizontal slash across his chest. He had obviously lost a lot of blood, as his skin was pale and uniform red. "You defeated Morgan... Thank you!"

Zoro recoiled at the sudden appreciation, having not expected it from a marine he had so easily cut down, but he didn't really have time to ponder it. He had lost his swords, he was weaponless in an enemy base. He needed to find his swords again, his _real_ swords, before he was found by any marines that could still walk. Shrugging off the odd thanks, he made for the open doorway to look for Luffy, but as luck would have it, he needn't take more than three steps, as Luffy then found him.

"Hey Zoro!" He shouted and waved. He had returned back to his human shape, something Zoro was thankful for, and ran out onto the roof with three swords tied across his back. "I found some swords, but I wasn't sure if any of them were yours or not, so I took all of them." He smiled his carefree smile. Zoro seemed to relax as he caught sight of his blades, specifically, _Wado Ichimonji_.

"Thanks. And they're all mine, by the way. I use three-sword style." Zoro said with a grin as Luffy stopped in front of him, the fact that he towered a full two feet above him no longer something he found disconcerting. Morgan had stood another two feet taller than Luffy, and yet he had been all hot air, and although it was true that he knew Morgan was probably weaker than Luffy, Zoro still found it comforting to know he had brought someone even taller so low.

"So..." Luffy trailed off as he looked about the roof at the one hundred marines that had fallen to Zoro. Luffy had felled his fair share of marines further down in the base, if not more than Zoro had, but it was still a damn impressive sight to behold. "Now that I've helped free you, gotten you your swords and you've proven you pretty strong." Luffy grinned. "You're gonna join my crew, right?"

Zoro gave the tall teen a hard stare for several silent minutes, his gaze unblinking. He didn't have anything against being on whatever crew this kid had, but there was one thing he needed Luffy to understand first. "I have a dream. A goal, really." He began as he fixed his swords to his waist, relishing in the comforting feeling of their return. "I'm going to become the worlds greatest swordsman." He announced. "Know that if I join you crew, I'll pursuer that dream to the ends of the world, no matter what you goal is or the purpose of your crew is."

Luffy, while previously grinning, positively beamed at the firm resolve in Zoro's voice. "That's a good goal." The pirate assured. "And I wouldn't have it any other way. After all, the king of the pirates can only have the best on his crew." Zoro raised an eyebrow at that. Pirate? He shrugged. He wanted to be the best swordsman in the world, laws be damned. Besides, 'pirate hunter' wasn't something he'd ever called himself.

"Alright then Captain." Zoro smirked as he saw Luffy's smile become inhuman, growing to an impossible size. "Where to first?"

"Actually." Luffy began, looking about the rooftops of the marine base around him. "I promised something to someone important before I started out to be a pirate." He said cryptically, remembering the final promise he had made with Ace as he had left. "Since you're the first member of my crew, I guess this is the real start of being a pirate." The tree man reasoned, as he spoke his feet shifted into wood and began mapping out a root system in the roof and walls of the building. "So let's start out with one hell of a statement."

"Hardwood Catastrophe!"

* * *

Nami's jaw dropped, her eyes bulging in not terror, but sheer disbelief. The map clenched dangerously tightly in her hand was all but forgotten as she drift out to sea in her small ship, watching from a distance as before her very eyes the laws of nature were given the single finger salute. She could hear the crumbling, even all this distance away, as chunks of the massive buildings that made up the 153rd marine base fell from the structures and crashed into the ground.

Marines scrambled about in terror as the base was torn apart around them, colossal roots, massive branches and titanic trunks grew at unnatural rates, swelling out from the walls of the base and expanding to crush all in their way. Within minutes, entire buildings had been wrought asunder and ground into dust under the now, giant sized forest and hundreds of trees over a kilometer tall grew up, reaching for the sun as wood twisted and groaned under its growth.

Within five minutes, the marine base in Shells town had been replaced by an ancient looking forest that dominated the skyline of Yotsuba island, each tree as wide and ten men and taller than the buildings they had replaced.

All the while, Nami stared, mouth agape, at the impossible happenings that had taken place, decided that she needed to sit down after feeling a little light headed. " _What do people do after seeing something like that..?_ "

* * *

 **And there's chapter two!  
Is it me or is it a little disturbing that Helmeppo, when he first appears, is a twenty year old man who still calls his father 'Daddy'?  
Anyway, hit up the polls, every vote counts!  
I'm going to try and get through the East Blue saga quickly, hopefully leaving each Recruitment/villain arc to one chapter so we can get to the Grand Line soon.  
Let me know what you thought of the chapter, feedback helps!  
Until next time!  
Toodles!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well.**  
 **HO-LY SHIT. 102 favs, 143 follows. _Damn_ I was not expecting this story to get so much attentions so fast. Hoping, sure. Expecting? Hell no.**  
 **Also, _I wont be taking OC requests!_ I was actually going to make this an OC centered fic, but instead gave up and gave Luffy the devil fruit my OC would have had.**  
 **I have been informed that some of you guys can't see/access the poll. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to fix this, I even googled it and apparently I'm doing everything right, but nevertheless the problem persists. If you are experiencing this problem, I urge you to vote in the reviews. The poll will be taken down two days after this chapter is posted.**  
 **Onward!**

* * *

Garp shifted uncomfortably in the plush chair. Don't get him wrong, it was a comfortable chair for those who could fit, but alas, Garp was not one of such person. He frowned as he shoveled another rice cracker into his mouth and chewed loudly and furiously, determined to annoy the man who he felt made him sit in this infernal chair just to annoy him. " _Well two could play at that game!_ " He though viciously as he swallowed and crammed another cracker noisily into his mouth.

Sengoku, for his part, was doing a remarkable job of ignoring Garp's attempts at getting back at him for making him sit in the tiny chair. He would have the last laugh in this cold war of wits of theirs, mark his words... Unfortunately, their little stale mate of theirs had to come to a halt. "Garp, you know why I've asked you here?" Sengoku asked, his voice quivering in annoyance of the other mans loud chewing.

"You wanted a rice cracker?" Garp asked innocently as he squirmed about in the chair, offering the Fleet Admiral his packet of crackers as he grinned in silent satisfaction of seeing Sengoku grinding his teeth together in frustration.

"No." The Fleet Admiral growled. "I asked you here because you requested more leave to visit your grandson. Correct?" Garp nodded, suddenly eager for the answer. "Well I'm going to grant your request." Sengoku managed, nearly being cut off as Garp just about leaped through the office roof in celebration. "Provided!" He shouted over the marine hero's triumphant cheers, quickly bringing his one man party to an abrupt end. "That you look into a matter on happenings at the 153rd base while your in the east blue."

Garp's eyebrows rose in question as he made the mistake of sitting back down in that _goddamn chair_. "What's happened?" He growled out as he found himself trapped by its heinously narrow arms once more.

"Recent reports from the base say that it was attacked." Sengoku said as he suppressed his grin as he pulled out the stack of papers detailing the report and handing them over to the Vice Admiral, who began thumbing through it. "If these reports are to be believed, pirates raided it, freed a prisoner and dealt the marines stationed there a crushing defeat before destroying the base with trees." Garp froze.

"Trees?" He asked as he looked up from the report, several beads of sweat making themselves known as they wormed down the back of his neck and under his color.

"Yes, trees." Sengoku grumbled, nodding to the papers in Garp's hands. "The full details will be in there, but we've been told that the base, and only the base, was broken apart by trees growing up from underneath it and even out of the walls. I need you to verify this before you head to Dawn island."

"Uhh, right." Garp muttered nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll uhh, I'll get right on that!" He announced loudly, jumping out of his seat with the paper report clutched tightly in his hands as he made for the door. Sengoku, having easily noticed Garp's suspicious behavior, raised an eyebrow.

"What do you know?" He asked suspiciously, the sweat that broke out on Garp's forehead glistening under the light of the Fleet Admiral's office.

"What, me?! Nothing! Come on, what would I know about a marine base getting trashed by pirates and trees!" Garp waved off. "Anyway, I gotta go to the east blue and sort a few things out, bye!"He blurted out quickly before dashing through the door and disappearing down the hall in a surprising burst of speed for someone so old. " _Dammit Luffy, please tell me that wasn't you!_ " He thought to the soundtrack of Sengoku's annoyed shouting.

"Gaaarrrrrppppp!"

* * *

Luffy frowned as he looked up at the blue sky, the clouds dotting its vastness lazily drifting about above him. It was hot, the sun was unrelenting out on the open ocean, but the wind was a kind solace. He and Zoro had been aimlessly adrift for hours now, the navigational knowledge between the two leaving them at the mercy of the sea's temper. Despite having no real control over where they were going, the two pirates were awfully relaxed.

"How long do you reckon it'll take us to get to reach land?" Zoro asked as he leaned against the side of the boat, his arms folded over his chest and his eyes closed.

"Who knows." Luffy managed through a mouthful or apple. "Kinda up to the sea and wind, huh? Might take a while." The future king of the pirates waved off, a bit too carefree for Zoro's taste.

"Hold on, doesn't your plan seem a bit strange?" He asked, cracking an eye open and peering at Luffy. "Planning to be the king of the pirates, but you don't have any navigational skills?"

"What about you?" Luffy shot back with a smirk. "Aren't you a 'great bounty hunter of the sea'?" He queried.

"I don't recall saying I was ever a bounty hunter." The swordsman shrugged, leaning his head over the edge of the boat to stare up at sky like Luffy. "I set out from my village in search of two specific men, but I couldn't find a way back to my village. I needed to make some money to keep going, and a couple of local pirates just happened to have bounties on their heads." He reminisced. Sure, he missed his village, but there was a certain freedom to a life drifting from one place to another, living in the moment.

"So you're lost?" Luffy asked innocently.

"Don't say it like that!" Zoro snapped, stamping his foot against the floor of the boat, his boot going straight through the wood as the impact rocking the boat back and forth violently. Recoiling from the damage, Zoro pulled his foot from the hole and scrambled backwards. "Crap!" Water suddenly sprouted up from the hole like a fountain, quickly beginning to fill the small boat.

"Careful!" Luffy shouted as his feet merged with the wood and, before too much water could flood their small vessel, a knot of roots sprung from the broken wood and knitted themselves together, mending the hole in seconds and stopping the water from entering. Zoro, seeing this, raised an eyebrow.

"Nice..." He muttered as he bent down and began scooping up the small amount of water that had managed to get in with his hands and tossing it over the edge of the boat. "But if you can do that, why can't you just make us a bigger ship?" He asked with a skeptical frown.

"Well for starters." Luffy began. "The wood I make is tree wood. It's still alive and untreated. Normally in the ocean it would rot away over time, but because my wood comes from my powers, which I got from a devil fruit, the ocean seems to eat away at any wood I make in just a few hours." He explained. "If I was to build a boat from my powers and set sail, the wood would rot in a few hours, the ship would sink and I would drown. Small repair to already existing and treated wood is ok, cause I can keep patching up the hole. But with a whole ship, I would constantly be making the hull over and over again. It's a lot of wasted effort and time when I could just get already existing ship." He explained.

"I see." Zoro nodded, looking down at the small patch in the bottom of the boat. "So that's gonna rot away in a few hours, and you're gonna have to replace it." Luffy nodded. "And repairing one small hole every few hours is a lot easier than an entire ship every few hours." Again, Luffy nodded. "But you could, if you wanted, make a ship out of you own wood." He said pointedly.

"I could." Luffy agreed. "But I can't make sails and I don't know how to make the complex parts of a ship like, say, the steering. So if I ever did, it'd be a last ditch emergency." Zoro hummed in thought, now much more relaxed as he thought about his strange Captain's powers. Powers like that would definitely come in handy during a battle at sea...

"Hey, you mind growing me some fruit? I'm hungry." Zoro asked.

"Yeah, sure." Luffy waved off, leaning back on the side of the boat and string up at the sky once more. His feet still being part of thee boat, Luffy grew a small branch directly next to Zoro's head, managing to catch the swordsman off guard as an apple, hand of bananas and an orange grew out of the same branch. Picking the fruit, Zoro muttered his thanks as Luffy continued to stare upwards. " _I'm hungry too, but what I need is some meat..._ " He idly thought.

It was then that he took note of a shadow in the sky. Squinting, Luffy peered up at the dark figure as it lazily soared around the clouds and across the great expanse of the sky. " _Is that..._ " Luffy thought as he gently lifted his head from the side of the boat. "Bird?" He said aloud.

"You say something?" Zoro asked as he looked up from his banana.

"Hey Zoro, wanna eat it?" The Captain asked, a cheeky grin stretching his lips as he pointed upwards. Zoro, still eating his fruit, slowly rolled his head back to look straight up. He then rolled his head back to look a Luffy, merely raising an eyebrow.

"How?" He asked, although he already suspected the answer.

"Leave that to me." Luffy said, his grin growing into a large smile as he thrust his arm forwards. "Cobra branch!" Luffy called out as his arm grew, extending with the unworldly speed of his woods growth as he literally reached up to the sky and soon, his hand was nearly among the clouds. That was when Zoro noticed the distinct size differences between Luffy's arm and the bird he was reaching for.

"This isn't going to end well..." He sighed dejectedly as he watched.

"Uhh..." Luffy gripped his shoulder with his other hand, tugging on his outgrown limb gently. "Zoro, can you cut my arm?" He asked nervously, standing up as he did so.

"Why?" Zoro asked, frowning at the younger man.

Luffy cringed as he felt his arm being pulled, reforming his feet and slowly began to walk to the front of the boat, his hand resting on the mast and merging with it to act as an anchor. "Cause my hand seems to be stuck in its be-" Luffy was cut off as his arm turned taut and, instantly, he was ripped from the boat, the mast fused to his arm snapping and being dragged along with him. "Crap!" He shouted as he was pulled out from the boat and over open water. "Zoro! Help!" He shouted as, with Zoro watching in annoyance, Luffy was dragged of by the giant pink bird.

"You dumbass! What the hell are you doing?!" Zoro shouted as he quickly pulled the oars out from the side of the boat and began rowing at inhuman speeds as Luffy cries grew distant. "Why didn't you just detach you arm? Or wrap the damn bird in wood until it couldn't fly? Or keep growing you damn arm as it flew off?! You idiot!" Zoro shouted as he heaved the oars.

"Hey! Please stop!" Came a shout from the water in front of the boat. Gritting his teeth, Zoro heaved harder as he tried to keep track of his Captain.

"Drifters? I don't have time for this!" Zoro growled out. "I can't stop! Climb in as I go past or get left behind!" He called out as he furiously churned water with the oars. Fearful cries met his declaration as Zoro powered on, but before they could latch on, Zoro heard three distinct thumps under the bow of the boat. "Ah crap." He muttered to himself as he pressed on, not looking back. "That sounded like it hurt."

* * *

Two minutes. It took precisely two minutes of being dragged through the sky by a giant pink bird before Luffy decided to turn it into something much more fun, and now he hung from around the birds neck with a face splitting grin, wind rippling through his hair as he laughed. He had grown a large ring from his back, said ring looping around the birds neck like a collar, as he let his arms and legs writhe free in the sky. He imagined that what was feeling was much like that of actually flying himself: Free to explore the world, freed from the weight of the world, the feeling of gravity trying to pull him back down to earth, only defied by the strength of the muscles on his back, much like he had wings.

"Now this is freedom..." He said quietly to himself, spreading himself out like a starfish, looking down at the vastness below him. "Hey, an island!" He shouted in joy as he spotted the large blob of greens, browns and grey below him. "We haven't turned much, so Zoro should be able to find it pretty easy..." With a frown, Luffy focused on what he could feel around him. It took concentration, but soon he felt his senses pulsate outwards, painting a picture of his surroundings.

Unfortunately, Luffy wasn't very good at observation haki. If anything, it was the field of haki he was most lacking in. Not that it bothered him, it just meant that he needed practice, and being the pirate meant that there was no shortage of people to fight in order to get that practice. But because of his short comings, his range wasn't all that great, only about fifty meters or so. So using it so high up, Luffy sensed nothing aside from the bird he was hitching a ride on.

"Oh well." He shrugged, his smile growing as he reached back to plop his hat back on top of his head, having just been hanging around his neck on a string. "One way to find out if Zoro will get there!" Luffy chuckled. Suddenly, the wooden ring around the birds neck snapped in twine, sinking back into Luffy's body like slurped noodles, and instantly, Luffy began his free fall.

"Yeeeeeeaaahhhahahahaha!"

* * *

Sweat pouring, muscles screaming in protest and the slapping on shoes on paved stones. Ragged and gasping, Nami felt her breaths rasp against her dry throat like sandpaper. She needed to stop. She needed a drink. She needed to get off her feet and let herself rest as she felt her knees beginning to wobble. Tired from the running and panting from the exertion, Nami was exhausted. But she couldn't stop.

"Thanks for the map guys!" Nami shouted behind her, waving the rolled up piece of paper in her hands at those giving chase.

"Get back you little sneak!" Roared an angry voice behind her, accompanied by a series of protests from his two companions. "We just stole that map!"

"We need it for the Grand Line!" One of the others shouted, almost sounding like he was begging.

"Our captains gonna have our heads if we don't get it back!"

Nami curled her lip in a snarl at the last one. No pirate would ever play the strings of sympathy in her heart. No, these men lost any chance of being able to do that the moment they sailed with one of the most notorious pirates of the east blue: Buggy the Clown. When Nami had first heard the name, she had laughed, like she imagined many other people had done. Then she heard of the things he had done, and she stopped laughing. Murder, razing entire towns, pillaging coast side cities and kingdoms; enough criminal activity to be forever branded with a 15,000,000 berri bounty, labeling him as one of the three biggest pirates in the East Blue, right behind Don Kreig and-

A shudder ran down Nami's spine, flashes of memories that brought the sting of tears to her eyes and a sickening tightening to her stomach: Arlong the fishman. Pushing past her storm of emotions, Nami took a deep, ocean mist tainted breath and pressed harder, ignoring the burning in her legs and lungs. She had a map to the entrance to the Grand Line, and wasn't about to loose it. It was then that her ears perked up.

"The hell is..." She asked as, while still running, she looked over her shoulder, only to find the three pirates had also stopped and were now looking up at the sky. Seeing the lull in their pursuit, Nami seized the advantage to stop and catch her breath.

"Is that a... Person?" One of the pirates muttered. Nami frowned and watched them curiously, not entirely confident that this wasn't some lamely thought up attempt to get her to stop, until she heard that noise again.

"Laughter?" She wondered aloud, finally braving to look up to see a bright red and blue blur letting loose the laugh of a madman.

"-AHAHAHAHAHHA!-"

 _'SLAM!'_

Nami cringed at the high speed impact, feeling it rattle ground as the body crashed into the stone street hard enough to leave a large crater, dust and rubble showered the area. Her stomach clenched and her knees shook as what she had just seen sunk in. Someone, some poor soul, had just plummeted to their death. She didn't know where they had fallen from, or how it had happened, but she felt her lunch clawing up her throat.

"Poor guy..." One of the pirates muttered, each of the three with a surprisingly solemn look on their faces. That was, until the 'Dead' person stood up, rubble falling off him to clatter on the ground.

"Ah, well that was one way to get down. Kinda fun too..." Came the boyish voice, one that seemed to bring a pang of familiarity to Nami.

"How the hell are you still alive!" One of the Buggy pirates shouted, growing several shades paler than healthy, the other two backing away.

Nami watched, wide eyed at the alarmingly tall silhouette that straightened itself in the dust cloud, and she cold have _sworn_ that several long, tentacle like protrusions moved about along the outside of the shadow before sinking back into the persons body. Then the dust began to settle, and the figure reached behind himself and placed straw hat on top of his head, and Nami's eyes widened.

" _Him!?_ " She nearly screeched, but remained quite as her panicked mind ran rampant. Who was this man? He had been on the cruise ship with the pink haired marine-wannabe when it was attacked by pirates and then marines, and now he was here. Was he following her? But why? Had Arlong grown suspicious and sent him? " _No_." Nami shook head. She was being paranoid. Besides, if this guy had somehow survived dropping onto a stone street like that, then he had to be strong, and _that_ was something she could use to her advantage.

"Boss!" She quickly announced, stealing the attention of the four men as she took up the countenance of a girl who had just been relived of a great burden, which was, she thought, true in a way. "I'm so glad you're here!" She sang with a sickly sweet voice.

Luffy, however, frowned at the girl. "Boss?" He muttered to himself in confusion. "But you're not on my crew..."

Nami then turned and began running once again, ignoring that her body didn't consider that light break long enough. "I'll leave these guys to you and get out of you way, okay? Thanks!" She called over her shoulder as she quickly rounded a corner.

"But..." Luffy began again, but was cut off by an glowering voice behind him.

"Oh I see." One of the three men of Buggy's crew growled. "So, you're her boss, and you came to save her, is that it?" Slowly, with barred teeth, he withdrew his blade, the other two pirates following suit.

"I don't know who you guys are." Luffy sighed. "And I don't care, but I need to find my crew mate, so this is gonna have to be quick." Apparently, Luffy's words were ill received, if the rage etched onto the three's faces were any indication. Unfortunately, their rage blinded them to seeing that Luffy's feet had vanished beneath the stone on the street, the tell tale sign of what was to come being that his ankles were now made of wood.

"You cocky little basta-"

The stone street exploded upwards, writhing tendrils of roots and branches bursting to life around the three pirates and sending a rain of broken stone into the air. A short lived half second was all the three men had to take in what had just surrounded them, tens of the daunting, snaking growths bent and gnarled about them before, with no indication, Luffy slammed them together. The tendrils tearing apart the street in the process as he crushed the pirates together. ' _Crunch!_ '. Luffy didn't even wince at the sounds of their bones creaking and breaking under the massive pressure. Wood twisting and turning about their three now crippled bodies until it fused together.

The lanky teen stood there, his feet reverting to that of flesh, bone and blood as he stared at his latest piece of work. Before him, standing tall in conquest of the stone street, was a thick trunked tree, the faces of the three pirates trapped within being the only thing aside from the occasional limb, hand or foot sticking out from the bark being the only evidence that three still alive pirates were within it at all.

"Tree trap." Luffy whispered, uncaring. He still hadn't had a good fight. Alvida had been a disappointment and Zoro had taken down Morgan. Not that he was complaining, that meant he was a strong fighter, which Luffy was very happy about. But the last time Luffy had a decent fight was against his grandfather, Garp, and that was nearly six months ago. He needed a good fight, dammit!

Nevertheless, he needed to find Zoro. Sighing, Luffy thought to give his observation haki another go. He'd only get a feel of the surrounding fifty meters, but the more the practiced, the better he got. Closing his eyes, he pushed his senses outwards in an almost painfully slow process until, finally, he could feel everything within fifty meters. Including... The girl watching him from the roof? That was weird.

Opening his eyes, Luffy looked to where he had felt her presence, and sure enough, sitting there on top of the roof and looking somewhat out of breath, was the orange haired girl from before. He had seen her before, he remembered her from the small boat that he and Coby had hitched a ride on from the cruise ship Alvida had attacked once the marines had shown up. What was she doing there?

Nami stared, slack jawed and wide eyed at the scene before her. Sitting there, in the middle of the street, was a tree as tall as the three story buildings around it, and thicker than any other tree she had seen. "What the hell..." She wondered, that was, until she saw the faces and odd body parts sticking out of the trunk of three like grotesque decor. She felt her stomach churn again.

"What the hell did you do?!" She shouted down at the tall teen that was standing in the same place as she had left him, not a scratch on him.

"They're still alive, if that's what you're asking." Luffy said as he cleaned his hear with his pinky. "Anyway, what are you doing here? Last time I saw you was when you left once we got to Shells town." He asked in such an innocent way that Nami felt a shudder run down her spine. For someone to be so carefree after _somehow_ doing whatever he had just done to trap three pirates in a fully grown damn tree -which apparently appeared out of nowhere!- in the span of, from what she could tell, was just a few seconds... She felt a cold pit settle into her gut.

" _I have a lot of questions for this guy, but I need to make sure that we're not... Interrupted by Buggy's crew any more._ " Nami thought as she took a deep, calming breath. " _Alright, get out of the streets, get some answers from this guy, and figure out what to do from there on._ " Flicking through a list of mental plans, she thought back to all the treasure she had left at Buggy's main base of operations. If this guy could survive what he had and do what it was he had just done to three armed men, then maybe...

"So... You must be pretty strong, right?" She asked, forcing herself to remain calm, which was difficult under the conditions, and formulate a plan. "After all, you did..." Nami looked to the tree and those imprisoned within, trying to find the right words to describe it other than potential nightmare fuel. "That..." She settled for. "All on your own. So I was thinking that maybe we could team up?" She said, doing her best to look unperturbed by the situation.

"I'll pass." Luffy said, entirely too fast for Nami's liking, as he waved her off and began walking away in long, lanky steps. "I don't have any reason to."

" _That was too fast to even think it over, dammit!_ " Nami fumed as she leaped down from the roof of the building, using the second floor balcony as a jumping platform halfway. "Hey, wait up!" She called out, soon reaching the ground and running after the strange boy. "Just hear me out, would you?" Luffy sighed and looked over to her as she set a brisk pace to match his longer stride.

"Look, right now this town has been taken over by Buggy the Clown." Nami said, earning a raised eyebrow from the straw hatted teen. "He's a vicious, murdering, piece of scum pirate that chased everyone who lived in the town out, which is why its empty." Reaching behind herself, Nami pulled her stolen map from the back of her skirt. "I recently stole this map from them, but while I was in their base, I saw the huge mound of treasure they had stocked up. I don't know the exact amount, but I know its a lot. I want to steal it, and to do that, I need your help. In return, you would get a cut of the cash." Nami finished, putting the map back. "So, do you wanna help, or am I gonna get all that gold to myself?"

Luffy frowned lacing his fingers together, he rested them on the back of his neck as he leaned backwards as he walked, looking up at the sky. On one hand, he liked the idea of the gold he could get, plus he had heard of Buggy the Clown. Who hadn't? He's one of the three most powerful pirates in the East Blue. "What would you need me to do?" He asked, although if he had to guess, he would say that his job would be to walk up to their base and cause a commotion while Nami snuck around the back.

"If you want to be privy to the plan, you're gonna have to help me." Nami said, poking her tongue out mischievously, although inwardly she was sweating bullets. She was acting far more familiar and friendly to this guy than she would have preferred, but hey, sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do. Especially when the stakes were as high as they were for her.

"Well, a lot of gold wouldn't hurt..." Luffy trailed off, and suddenly Nami felt her chances of pulling this off were slightly higher. "But I wanna find my friend first. It'd be a lot easier with him." He said.

"You're friend?" Nami frowned. "That pink haired kid? I thought he was gonna join the marines?"

"Oh he did." Luffy chuckled. "I'm talking about Zoro. He decided to join me."

Nami's eyes widened to comical proportions. " _The_ Roronoa Zoro joined you?" She asked incredulously. "But wasn't he being held at a marine base? And why did he join you? What kind of crew are you guys?"

Luffy chuckled as she fired off the questions in quick succession. "Well, if you really want to know, he was being held by the marines, but I convinced him to join me and then freed him, and now he's the First Mate on my pirate crew."

Nami felt as though the blood in her very veins had been replaced the waters of a frigid lake as she looked down at the ground between her feet as they walked. "You're a pirate?" She asked quietly, a belying undertone of horror and rage on her voice as she balled her hands.

"Yep." Luffy said with a smile, but all humor was gone from his voice. He hadn't missed the dark shade of voice she had used, nor the trembling in her clenched fists. "That gonna be a problem?" He asked, the smile finally falling.

Several tense seconds passed between them, Nami slowly coming to a stop, Luffy doing so not two steps ahead of her. Slowly, Nami unclenched and flexed her hands and took in several long, deep breaths before raising her head once more. She looked solemn, with a deep seeded fury in her eyes that she held in check, but did nothing to hide.

"No. But just know that I hate pirates. Its why I only steal from them." She revealed with a steely voice.

Luffy nodded in understanding. "Alright, I get it. Somewhere, somehow, a pirate did something terrible to you. I understand that." He said in sympathy. "But don't lump all of us together just because you had a bad experience. One bad apple doesn't mean the whole crates bad." He reasoned, but Nami remained unchanging, the cold fire that thirsted for vengeance holding true. " _Those scars must be deep..._ " Nevertheless, Luffy didn't press the matter.

"Come on." Nami said flatly, nodding to the nearest house. "Let's talk over the plan inside."

Luffy shrugged. "Alright. I could use something to eat right now."

* * *

"They were what?!" Roared a furious voice. All around the circus tent like set up, men looked on with dread, shaking in spite of the warm weather. The figure of their fear was none other than their infamous captain, Buggy the Clown. He sat upon his makeshift throne, glaring down at the man prostrating himself before him. The poor crewman had been the man unfortunate enough to be the one to report to Buggy the situation of their stolen map and the three men sent after the thieving vixen who had taken it.

"T-They were trapped inside a t-tree, captain." The poor man stuttered. "A-All three of them are al-live, but seriously injured."

"Trapped?! In a Tree?!" Buggy shouted. "What kind of moron do you take me for?!"

"N-None captain!" The crewman squeaked in fear, but it seemed that Buggy was done listening to him. The pirate Captain stood up, heavily breathing through clenched teeth as he began to pace back and forth. First the map he had painstakingly stolen from a goddamn marine base was stolen from under the nose of his _former_ treasury guard, but now the pursuit party had been _trapped_ in a _tree_?! Absurd!

But then it clicked, and Buggy froze. It should have been obvious. What could give the middle finger to the laws of nature and physics as to trap three grown, armed men in a fully grown tree in the middle of a paved street? "Devil fruit..." He snarled to himself. "Buckle up, boys." He said as he turned to his crew as drew a fistful of knives. "If I'm right, then we might just be having some company soon." A ripple of uneasy voices and a few battle cries moved throughout Buggy's crew, each one of them reach for or drawing their preferred weapon.

Buggy the Clown whirled about on his crew, pointing a fist full of knives at the two men seated closest to his throne. "Mohji, you take a search party to the harbor!" He ordered, his beast tamer first mate nodding resolutely with a grin as he picked out men for his mission. "Cabaji!" Buggy shouted, the acrobat second mate straightening as he awaited his orders. "You take some men to search the coast. If either of you find anything for them to get away on, burn it down! If not, come back here. I want to make sure that there's no possible escape for these bastards!"

"Yes, Captain Buggy, sir!"

Buggy slowly lowered himself back onto his throne, a cruel grin upon his lips as he watched his first and second mates round up their men for their missions. Those left behind were readying pistols, sharpening blades and one or two were evening having to sober up. "The rest of you!" He called out, everyone stopping in their tracks. "I want everyone ready to great our guests as flashily as possible, you got me?!"

* * *

Nami sat down. Hard. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Again and again it happened, over and over, and she watched. She really hoped that whoever owned this house could afford to restock after this, because she didn't think that the cupboards could survive Luffy's endless pit of an appetite for much longer. Another slab of meat vanished as soon as it finished cooking, a loaf or bread supplementing his gorging until the next piece of meat was cooked.

He wasn't seasoning it or using sauce, merely cooking for a few minutes it and shoveling it into his mouth. It was inhuman.

"So, you're idea is to hand me over as your 'Boss' and pretend to join up and then steal everything once they're unconscious or sleeping?" Luffy asked in between servings, because there was no other way to describe how much food he could fit in his mouth in one bite other than a complete serving. If he ate like this regularly, then it was no wonder how he got so tall.

"Yeah, why? Got a better idea?" Nami asked, lightly glaring at him. She didn't like it when people questioned her plans, or when they ignored her glaring, and Luffy was doing both right now.

"Nope." Luffy said easily, but his thoughts were of a completely different opinion. " _Who would just lets someone join their crew off the bat like that? And does she really think they would trust someone that just stole their map from them so easily? Doesn't matter if she gives it back or not, they're still gonna be suspicious of her._ " He thought as he stuffed the last of the meat into his mouth. " _Not that it matters anyway. If it goes bad then I'll break out and do it my way._ "

"Good." Nami sighed, sitting back with her arms folded over her chest. "Well now that that's settled, and you appear to have stopped eating." She growled out the last through gritted teeth as she took in the state of the kitchen and its empty stores. "I think we should put the plan in action." Reaching behind the chair she was sat in, the cat-thief pulled out a long rope, pulling in taut in her hands as a malicious grin broke free across her face, the gleam in her eyes making Luffy shudder.

" _Where did she even get that rope?_ "

* * *

Zoro sighed as he swiftly swung his blades through the air to free it of the fresh blood. Looking about himself, his scowl deepened. He didn't know where he was, not that this was the first time, but he also didn't know if Luffy was still alive. His frantic rowing had paid off, fortunately. The island had been within sight when the swordsman had seen Luffy, at least he hoped the speck had been Luffy, fall from the bird and onto the land below. It hadn't taken him long to make it to the small harbor from then, even if the island did move about as though it had a mind of its own.

The town he had found himself it looked to be a small one, none of the fishing vessels that took up the majority of the room at the docks were any bigger than ten meters, and the docks themselves backed directly onto a street and residential area, the lack of industrial fisheries one would find next to the docks in the larger cities not in sight.

Shrugging to himself, the three sword wielding pirate slowly sheathed his twin nameless swords, having not even needed to draw _Wado Ichimonji_ for the pathetic fight his bloodied opponents had put up. As silently as he could, Zoro decided it was time to search the city for his errant Captain, the only sounds to be heard just those of his boots splashing in the crimson pools that had painted the towns docks and much of the nearby street.

He didn't know who these men were, or why they were at the docks nor even why they stopped him, but he didn't really care. The twenty or so men had fallen all the same to but a single blade, Zoro only needing to draw his second in order to finish off the apparent leader, a weird shirtless guy who looked to have white fur for hair and rode around on a lion. He had been a pain, and he wouldn't shut up, but he fell like his men nonetheless.

" _Right. Might as well get this over with._ " Zoro thought, his scowl not even wavering as his narrowed eyes scanned the nearby buildings. Nothing moved. Sighing, Zoro simply placed one foot in front of the other, and began his search for his wayward Captain.

* * *

Nami felt a single, cold drop of sweat slowly trickle down the back of her neck and under the collar of her shirt. It was too late to back out, too late to go back and plan it all over again, because right in front of her, cold eyes narrowed and calculating, was Buggy the Clown. Curled blue hair, cross bone make up going over his eyes and a comically over sized red nose to go with that cunning, cruel smirk on his bright red lips as he watched her squirm under his gaze.

She tried not to fidget, tried to not to look away, but it was so damn hard! Just knowing this was one of the three most notorious pirates in the entire East Blue was enough to send a shudder down her spine.

On the ground at her feet, Luffy still lay after she had pushed him to the ground, bound in rope and watching with such indifference that Nami wanted to throttle him. Why couldn't he at least pretend to be as scared as she felt?! Doing that would at least make their plan that much more believable. Although she knew she would be getting it back, if all went according to plan, Nami had fought against herself to hand over the map of the entrance to the Grand Line.

Now, she waited for Buggy's verdict, standing among some of the most dangerous men in the entire East Blue with what she hoped looked like a confident grin. There was a tension so thick in the air that Luffy was idly wondering if Zoro would be able to cut it or not. That tension, though, was soon cracked by a snort coming from the big nosed Captain.

Nami flinched.

But it was for nothing, as Buggy then roared with laughter, prompting a subtle breath of relief from Nami.

"You got sick of working for him, did you?" He managed as his laughter. "What an inserting girl. What is your name?" He asked as he rose from his chair almost lazily.

"Nami." The teen replied easily.

"Well, Nami. I must know." Buggy began as he slunk closer, his grin growing all the more ominous as he neared. "Three of my men pursued you after you stole the map, but I was given the most interesting reason for why they failed."

Nami gulped as he stopped not two feet from her. She had completely forgotten about those three trapped within Luffy's tree, a foolish oversight in retrospect, but what was worse was that she hadn't planned for Buggy knowing what had happened. What would she say?!

"You see, the man I sent looking for them told me he found them stuck inside a tree that had seemed to have grown through the stone road." Buggy continued. "Now, you seem like a smart girl so I'm going to assume you know just how impossible it all seems, but if you're as smart as I think you are, then you'll also know why it happened. Tell me girl, is it you or your boss who ate the devil fruit?"

Nami blinked.

"Devil fruit?" She asked with a confused frown, being taken by complete surprise. "Those are just an old sailors stories."

Buggy snorted, but there was no humor in it this time. Quicker than she could see, something had shot out of his hand and Nami's eyes widened in shock. There was a grip on her throat so tight she found it hard to breath and slowly, she felt her feet leaving the ground, her toes barely brushing it as her hands clamped over whatever it was that was lifting up up, only to freeze in fear.

Slowly, she felt around the thing on her neck. She could still breath, if only a little, but it was enough for her to retain rational thought as she tried to figure out why the thing holding her up like this felt like a _human hand_. Slowly, her eyes, shaking with fear, looked down at the stump of Buggy's right hand. Where his wrist ended and his hand began, there was nothing.

The was no blood, nothing to show how his hand had been removed, his arm simply ended. Seeing this, panic seeped in and poisoned what was left of her thinking mind and Nami began thrashing about, kicking her legs about as she let loose as strangled, hoarse cry for help that came out as a pathetic wheeze.

"An old sailors story, eh?" Buggy chuckled darkly as his eyes bored into Nami's. "Well then I guess you have nothing to worry about then." The chorus of laughter that Buggy's crew let out sent shudders down Nami's spine as she felt Buggy's disembodied hand grip her throat tighter, cutting off her airways completely. But before she could think of any possible last words or silent prayers, Buggy's hand let go, and she found herself rubbing her sore rump on the ground.

"What the..." She trailed off, scampering back from Buggy as she massaged her throat, only for her eyes to widen.

Buggy stood, having not moved, glaring up at Luffy with contempt as the teen, standing a full foot taller than the clown, held an arm out to Buggy's shoulder. But similarly to Buggy, his arm ended at the wrist as where his hand should have been resting on the pirate Captains shoulder, Luffy's arm turned to bark encrusted wood. From the hand on his shoulder, it had grown around Buggy's entire body like a living net, leaving his head free and binding him still to the ground where the wood, having wrapped Buggy's legs and feet as well, dug into the ground beneath him. "I'm gonna have to stop you there." Luffy chuckled.

All around Nami, Buggy's crew took unsure steps back as a wave of fearful murmurs rippled through their midst. "So, you're the one who ate the devil fruit. I should have guessed." Buggy sneered.

Luffy, though, chuckled as he placed a hat atop his hat, that carefree smile of his shining brightly. "Yep. It was me." He declared. "Trapped your guys in the tree, too." He added casually.

Nami, however, was having a none-too-small crisis over what she considered possible and impossible. "What the hell are you two?!" She shrieked. She regretted doing so immediately, however, as both freaks of nature turned to giver her a bland look each.

"You're not really her boss, are you?" Buggy asked motionlessly.

"Nope." Luffy blinked. "Just met today. She'd know about devils fruits and the like if I was her boss."

"Figures."

But quick as their apparent agreement was, they soon returned to glaring at each other with utter loathing.

"All right you flashy bastard." Buggy growled and, before everyone's eyes, his body suddenly exploded into parts, flying in all directions, Buggy's entire body shattered to become small, perfectly cut cubs that wormed their way out of the wood that had wrapped around his body, his head floating out of reach. "I'm gonna dice you up, nice and flashily!" He announced as parts of his body swarmed, both hands coming back together with fistfuls of knives. "Chop chop cannon!"

Luffy grinned, quickly bending backwards until his hands touched the ground to see the attack glide over him harmlessly. "Alright! This is more like it!" He cried out as his feet turned to wood and tunneled underneath the stone like an anchor. Buggy laughed as his hands flew back to him, large parts of the clowns body assembling and hovering in the air.

Snapping back upwards, Luffy's hands grew, flattened, condensed and elongated until each was a long, scythe like blade as he flung them forwards. "Harvest blades!" He announced as he slashed at Buggy's floating parts.

"Not going to work!" Buggy taunted as the blades parted his flesh, only for him to separate like before, the clown completely unharmed. "I'm a chop chop man!" Hands flying forwards once more, Buggy grabbed onto Luffy with a tight grip. "Midair tailspin big circus!" With his shout, Buggy's hands then pulled upwards, trying to lift Luffy into the air, but much to Buggy's surprise, Luffy stayed rooted to the ground. Literally.

The stone around were Luffy's feet were planted bulged and lifted somewhat, but he didn't budge and inch. "The hell?!" Buggy cried as he visibly strained to lift the tall teen from the earth, but to no avail.

"Not going to work!" Luffy laughed, visibly rejoicing at throwing Buggy's words back at him. Although he was now hovering three meters from the ground in separate pieces, Buggy's eyes widened in surprise as from between the brick laying of the street below him, a large, thick and ever growing branch of flexible wood erupted, reaching into the air and curling upon itself at the tip.

Mouth agape and too stunned by the sight, Buggy failed to move out of the way as the branch lashed forwards like a whip, swatting his leg shin out of the air with the cracking sound of a cane. "Oooww!" Although sharp blades did nothing to him, Buggy could still be hurt by blunt force. Recoiling from the offending appendage, Buggy grit his teeth as he glared at it, thus failing to notice the dozen behind and on both sides of him.

"Snake pit!" Luffy shouted.

Wide eyed, Buggy couldn't defend himself from all directions as blow after blow rained down from serpent like tendrils that hailed pain. With a cry of both anger and pain, Buggy forced his pieces upwards, hoping to escape the reach of the striking branches. Glancing down as he soared to his maximum height and glared down at the straw hat wearing teen with open hate. "You flashy bastard! I'll kill you for that!"

Luffy, however, merely grinned, his eyes never leaving Buggy's parts as he watched them scatter into the air and away from Luffy's branch. "You're gonna have to do better than that!" Luffy called out and instantly, the writing mass of wood that was his Snake pit grew larger, longer and thicker as they reached for the nearest part of Buggy. The clown himself let out an indignant scream as he saw this, quickly dodging in all direction to try and evade the attacks.

"Cobra branch!" Suddenly, from the branch closest to Buggy's chest, an offshoot sprung to life. Like a bullet from a pistol, the branch shot out with its large, hand like end to grab a hold of the body part. Before Buggy could split into pieces even further, however, the wood roiled about to engulf it completely, swallowing Buggy's chest into the wood as the branch shrunk back into the larger tendril, the body part being taken with it until sunk beneath the bark.

"You bastard! I need that!" Buggy shouted as he watched a part of himself taken prisoner in the very wood that was assaulting him. Glaring hatefully at Luffy, Buggy spied his machinations falling into place as his feet finally managed to slip just behind the wood man. "Chop chop circus train!" Instantly, Buggy's pieces tore through the air to take their places behind his head to form what loosely resembled a train of floating body parts, only his hands in front of his head with their knives bared forward between his fingers menacingly.

With surprising speed, Buggy's attack shot forward, ducking and weaving between and around the whip like branches with an eerie grace, knives aimed for Luffy's rooted body. But the wood man wouldn't take such and attack lying down. "Cobra branch!" As Buggy ducked and weaved to and forth between Luffy's attack, he suddenly gasped in both pain and surprise as like before, although from every tendril now, offshoots erupted outwards to snare a part of Buggy's body, wrap around it and drag it withing the large appendage.

"Damn you, you little bastard!" Buggy snarled as his remaining pieces split again and again until it looked like the only parts bigger than marbles were his hands and head. "Die!" Branches still sniped out and snatched up parts of the clown, but the small size made the difference almost negligible.

Luffy, too focused on dwindling Buggy's already small supply of body parts, was then caught off guard by the four arms that wrapped around him from behind. The teen's eyes widened as the two men behind him pulled his shoulders backwards, bending him back slightly and exposing his chest and torso. "We've got him Captain! Got for it!" One of the men cried and, too surprised by the underhanded tactic to block Buggy with his tendril like branches, Luffy could only watch as Buggy's hand shot forwards.

"No!" Nami, who had only been able to watch on in fascinated fear until then, covered her mouth with her hand as she watched the glinting steel sink into Luffy's chest. The entire area froze, becoming deathly silent for the briefest of seconds. The wooden tendrils stopped moving, Buggy wore a vicious grin and the men around her chuckling darkly. Nami felt sick. She might not have known him that long, he might have even been a pirate, but that didn't mean that she wanted him to die. And to die alone in a fight against scum like this...

"What's the matter Buggy? Can't win on your own?" Nami's eyes bulged in their sockets and the grins Buggy and his crew wore died in an instant. Suddenly, Luffy's back exploded outwards as hundreds of long, deadly sharp stick erupted from his skin, turning the two men behind him into pin cushions. The men fell to the ground, either dead or dying in front of Nami's eyes as she felt a cold grip take a tight hold of her heart. "You might be one of the biggest pirates in the East Blue, but I thought someone like you would be above cowardice like that."

Straightening himself and adjusting the hat on his head, Luffy glared up at the clown in the sky with utter contempt. "I wanted to beat you to pit my strength against a famous pirate." He spat with malice so thick on his voice Nami could nearly see it. Trembling, she scampered away. She needed to get away from these monsters, and get away she did, the pirates too distracted to pay her any mind. "But after that, I'm gonna beat seven shades of shit outta you just on principle."

"You bastard, you're a logia type then, are you?" Buggy growled, his remaining body parts floating down to the ground as he feet waddled out from behind Luffy to stop underneath where Buggy's legs would be. "No matter." The clowns hands jerked backwards, wrenching themselves free from his chest and taking their knives with them, only for Luffy's chest to stitch itself back together. "I'll jus-"

"Captain Buggy!" Came a panicked scream. All at once, the pirates paused and turned to the source of the sound, many moving to the side so that other pirates could see.

"What now?!" Buggy howled in frustration. "Can't you see I'm trying to flashily kill this bastard?!" From behind to crowd of Buggy's crew, flailing about in both pain and exhaustion, stumbled in one of Buggy's strongest crew members. "Cabaji?" Buggy asked incredulously as he took in the acrobats state. The man was limping from a large gash travelling up his right leg and bleeding from twin shallow, parallel cuts across his chest and finally, blood matted his hair from a wound somewhere on his scalp, dripping crimson over his left eye. "What the hell happened to you?!"

"D-D-Demon!" Cabaji managed as he stopped, panting for breath. "T-There's a d-demon on the isl-Ack!" Whatever he was going to say was cut abruptly short as from behind him, a long and narrow blur descended upon his back from either side with a spray of blood. His one open eyes rolling into the back of his head, Cabaji fell forward, a painful sounding ' _Crunch_ ' accompanying the ' _Thud_ ' as he fell face first.

There, standing stone still in his crouch, with a bloodied sword in each hand pointing straight up and his eyes shadowed by his bandanna, was Roronoa Zoro. "To order you men to their deaths while you run from the fight..." The swordsman growled. "You, coward, hove no honor. I have done the world a favor by ridding it of you." A wave of cold shudders rippled through the assembled crew of Buggy the Clown.

"I-It's Ro-Roronoa Zoro!" One man whimpered.

"P-pirate Hunter!" Another shrieked.

"Hey Zoro." Luffy greeted with a dark smirk.

Lifting his head, Zoro locked eyes with Luffy, giving him a small nod in return. "Captain." He greeted.

"Dammit, fine!" Buggy bit out. "I'll deal with you after I've finished with this straw hat bastard!" He announced as he pointed to Luffy. "You! Prepare to die!" With that, Buggy's hands spit apart even further, his fingers separating from his palms, each one curled around the handle of a knife. Slowly, all ten floated apart from one another. "Chop chop midnight festival!" Buggy announced and, much to Luffy's surprise, the knives and fingers of Buggy the Clown blackened to obsidian, then sheen of armaments haki.

"Wha-" Luffy managed, but before he could utter another syllable, all ten fingers and their knives blurred into motion too fast for Luffy to keep track of. In a whirlwind of movement, all ten black blades burst forwards and encompassed the still rooted Luffy and within seconds, the young pirate found himself in a variable tornado of dark blades and pain. All over his body, bloody cuts appeared in his skin, slicing through muscle with ease as for the first time in years, Luffy felt the pain of bleeding.

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted in shock. How could this happen? His Captain had told him himself that his body was made of wood, he couldn't be hurt! So how?! "Dammit!" He had to help his Captain! Growling monstrously, Zoro drew _Wado Ichimonji_ and gnashed his teeth over the hilt of his most treasured blade. "Oni-" But before he could finish the attack, the surrounding men in Buggy's crew jumped forwards, swords and pistols drawn as they swamped him. "Crap." He grunted.

"You're not going anywhere, pirate hunter." One of the many in Buggy's crew sneered.

"Yeah, you're gonna have to get through us if you want to fight our captain as well."

Zoro ginned, a murderous gleam in his eye as he crouched. "Fine by me."

Luffy's head snapped backwards as he cried out in pain, eyes clenched shut as he tried to concentrate on his own armaments haki, but to no avail. The pain that warped about him simply crushed his focus as his knees buckled, the roots he had planted slowly retreating back into himself and the spires of wood that had grown from the ground slinking back beneath the stone, taking many of Buggy's body parts with them as he dropped to his hands and knees. As soon as he hit the ground, the veritable tornado of haki imbued knives and fingers vanished, each floating back towards Buggy.

"You cocky little bastard." Buggy snarled as what was left of his body reassembled, which wasn't much. "You think that you were safe and guaranteed a win just cause you're a damn logia? I sailed under the greatest pirate in history! I stood by him as he conquered The Grand Line! There was no way in hell that I didn't figure out how to kill a logia!" Buggy shouted, spittle dancing with his words in fury.

Wide eyes of all those around him, even his own crew, stared in shock at the declaration. "Captain..." The slow muttering of awe swept through his own crew. The thought of being under a man who had sailed with Gold Roger himself... A renewed roar tore its way from the throats of many, a fresh wave of courage seeping into their muscles, one man holding his sword high in the air, the sunlight catching the edge of the blade before he lowered it, pointing it at Zoro with an almost zealous glee. "For Capt-"

The abrupt laughter cut his battle call short, as even Buggy and Zoro turned to give Luffy an odd look as he slowly rose up from the ground.

"The hell's with him?"

"Think he's lost it?"

"Dunno, but it looks like it..."

"Think you can laugh at the great Captain Buggy like that? Bastard!" Leaping and swinging his cutlass, the man's savage grin died as his steel bit into wood. "Damn bas-"

Buggy's eyes widened in shock as before his eyes a distortion in the air washed over the entire island. He felt the iron will slam into his psyche, an unrelenting force that he had encountered many times during his journey. It was strong, potent, but he had suffered far worse and come out the other side in better shape. The same could not be said, however, for his crew.

As East Blue natives, none of them had ever encountered haki before, let alone the King's Will. Buggy watched, teeth threatening to crack under the pressure as he clenched his jaw at the sight of his entire crew dropping to the ground, frothing at the mouth like some rabid dogs that had been put down. A ragged, wheezing gasp as steel bit into stone drew both Buggy's and Luffy's attention, only for both of their eyes to widen in shock as Zoro, on one knee and supporting himself with one of his nameless swords, glared up at the Clown pirate.

"Zoro, you ok?" Luffy asked, and Buggy could see that he was worried about his crew mate but there was also something else in his voice, like a simmering respect that had just taken a large boost.

"I'm fine Captain." Zoro bit out through his panting.

Looking about himself, Luffy frowned. "Hey Zoro, if you're good to go, then can you look for Nami for me?" He asked, not seeing the young girl. "She's got orange hair, kinda pretty. You should start looking wherever there's treasure."

"Alright, but I want to know what the hell just happened afterwards." Zoro agreed, pushing himself off the ground.

"Sure thing." Luffy grinned, his attention returning to Buggy.

The Clown was visibly shaken. Though he had come across, fought beside and fought against conquers haki before, he had never seen it thrown about so carelessly by someone so _young_. And in the East Blue of all places! "You think just because you've got the King's Will that you're going to win so easily?" The older pirate growled. Shaken as he was, he would not lose face.

"So you can take it." Gripping the top of his hat, Luffy gently placed it on his head, the wide brim adorning his face in shadow. "That's good." His voice was quite and cold, Buggy only just being able to hear him until he raised his voice. "Ever since I set out from my home island, I've been looking for a good fight. Unfortunately, Alvida was a let down and my first mate got to Morgan before I could. But you?" Luffy lifted his head.

Beneath his straw hat, the skin on his left side had turned to bark, eyes glowing poison green with chlorophyll. "You can give me that fight." From the knees down, his legs turned to tree trunks, embedding thick, deep roots into the soil of the island. "Someone who sailed under the pirate king, you've got be able to put up a good fight. Right?"

The ground shook, Buggy's eyes widening. "Chop chop midnight festival!" Fingers curled about Blackened knives and lanced forwards, but mere feet from hitting home, a colossal, curved wall of dark wood jetted upwards, covering Luffy as the knives impaled themselves into the wood.

"Hardwood Shield." Luffy grinned. Before Buggy could do more, the ground under his feet buckled. The Clown pirate of the East Blue watched on in unadulterated horror as all around him, Luffy molded the battle field to his will. Luffy, although injured and bleeding from Buggy's earlier assault, had never felt so strong as now. The gate on his power had been unlocked. Mortar and stone was pushed aside, buildings shifted and gave way as Luffy let loose for the first time in years. This was a real fight, something he had wanted - _needed_ for months now.

All around the two pirates, the entire town was thrown about like children building blocks and the biggest trees Buggy had ever seen uncurled from earth. Twisting and swelling in size, all around them looked to be an endless forest as nature itself unleashed her wrath upon the town, reaching for the sky to brush aside the clouds and seize the sun.

Soon, light was no more, the density of the forest canopy blocking out even the barest glimmer of bright hope while their trunks suffocated the air, mere millimeters apart and hundreds in number. Buggy would have dropped to his knees in despair if Luffy had not stolen his knees. This wasn't a fight. This wasn't a slaughter. This was a statement. A challenge to anyone out there that he was there. Monkey D. Luffy was ailing the seas, and he was coming for whoever might be strong enough to garner his attention.

"Damn you." Buggy choked back as sob as he heard the writhing in the wood. Luffy was on the move, but Buggy couldn't see a damn thing! "Damn you..." Trembling not in fear, Buggy gripped his knives harder as he looked up at the never ending canopy. Hundreds of meters high, completely unreachable. Buggy would have his vengeance. He swore it! He would not die today to this brat! He might lose now, but he'd be back for that damn bastards head! He would kill him! "DAMN YOU STRAW HAT!"

The creak and groaning of wood was his only answer, and only warning, before from every side, every inch of wood and bark that surrounded him, opened a small, thin hole that unleashed a nearly silent puff of air, and a cold whisper. "Punji stick storm."

Buggy's screams bounced from each tree to echo in his imprisoning cleaning in the endless forest for hours.

* * *

Zoro eyed the unconscious girl in front of him warily as he started ticking off his mental checklist that Luffy had given him. Orange hair? Check. Kinda pretty? Check. Near treasure? Well that big pile of gold next to her definitely checked that box. He grunted in satisfaction and nodded his head. Job well done. He wasn't sure what his Captain wanted with the girl, and he sure as hell hadn't given him any instructions as to what to do when he found her, but he bent down threw her over his shoulder, just in case.

He didn't know what had happened, what had rendered what looked to be everyone on the island bar himself, his Captain and Buggy unconscious, but it sure as hell did a fine job of doing it. But then there was that black stuff Buggy had used. He didn't know what it was called, where it came from or how to use it, but it had hurt his Captain, and that alarmed Zoro. But there was more to it.

Luffy had told him he had eaten a logia Devil Fruit, meaning his body was wood instead of blood and bone. So how in the hell that trick Buggy had up his sleeve, Zoro didn't know. One thing he knew, however, was that if he and his Captain were to ever come across someone else like Luffy, not of flesh and blood, then Zoro would have to know how to hurt him, otherwise he be nothing but a liability, and as someone who aspired to be the worlds greatest swordsman, it was unforgivable that he could ever be such to his crew.

Shaking his head, there was little he could do about it now. He would ask Luffy when he returned, having faith that his Captain could beat the clown of the East Blue. " _Alright, now that that's taken care of..._ " Zoro had just started to turn around when he paused. Glancing over his free shoulder, he spied the pile of gold with a newfound interest. " _What kind of pirate would I be if I didn't._ " He mused with a grin.

* * *

There was a steady dripping that seemed to have been perfectly in tune with the sound of the ocean, the small crimson drops falling onto the peak of a wave as it passed by, mixing the blood of the fallen with the endless expanse of the seas. The teen didn't know what had happened here, but when he had arrived to find twenty or so men cut up and bleeding, he had only assumed Zoro had been here.

Luffy looked out at the waters with a serine look on his face. He was sat at the end of the wharf, legs swinging to and fro beneath it without a care in the world, watching the small waves lapping at the support beams that held the structure atop the water. He was constantly firing bursts of observation haki around him, but he hadn't gotten much beyond fifty meters yet. He smiled as the words of Shanks echoed through his head from the years where the infamous pirate had visited Dawn island to help him. " _Practice makes perfect._ "

"Captain."

Luffy fired off his observation haki again, feeling his senses wrap around Zoro, the girl over his shoulder and the large bag he lifted in his left hand. "Zoro." Luffy greeted fondly. Today had been full of surprises, Luffy reminisced. First had been the girl making a deal with him, a deal of his word, and he would not break his word. He fought a bested Buggy, she had found the treasure, although it was Luffy's fault she hadn't had the time to gather it before he knocked almost everyone out, her included.

Then there was the fat that Buggy not only knew haki enough to injure him, but also sailed under the King of the Pirates. It was odd, for him to defeat a member of his idols crew, but nevertheless, he felt proud he could do so. Then, finally, there was the surprise of Zoro, and how he withstood a blast of conquerors haki. His first cremate was full of surprises, and he was glad for that. It wouldn't do for his first mate to be weak, and his fight with Morgan, along with today's events, certainly proved he wasn't.

"I've got some questions, Captain." Zoro muttered as he dropped the heavy sack of gold on the wooden wharf, then gently lowering the girl, Nami, Luffy had called her, to the ground also.

"Yeah, I know." Luffy nodded. "And I've got answers. So ask away."

Zoro nodded, folding his arms over his chest as he joined his Captain in looking out at the setting sun on the horizon, the reflection of a blazing inferno quivering atop the waves of the open ocean.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap for chapter three!**  
 **I do hope you enjoyed the read, I certainly enjoyed writing it!**  
 **Anyway, this chapter was released on the 6th of February 2019, Wednesday, and in the top AN, I have said that the poll will be taken down two days after this chapter is released, so that'd be the 8th of Feb, Friday. If you haven't voted yet, please do so quick!**  
 **THE NEXT POLL WILL BE DECIDING WHO WILL BE JOINING THE CREW! LEAVE SUGGESTIONS IN THE REVIEWS, I'VE MADE THREE SPOTS FOR NEW CREW MEMBERS SO IT DOESN'T GET TOO DIFFICULT TO WRITE ABOUT. ONLY THREE EXTENDED CREW.**  
 **Till next time!**  
 **Toodles!**


	4. Chapter 4

**IMPORTANT NOTICE!  
Before we get into the chapter, I've got a few points I want to cover as we get into the swing of things:  
** **The poll.**  
 **The extended crew.  
Romances.**

 **First off, the poll:**  
 **Poll:** **Both extended crew and pairings has won out with 51 votes!**

 **The extended crew:**  
 **Thanks to ChunkyFunkyMunky's reviews (Which have been in length and detailed which it awesome, thank you so much for reviewing!) I have realized that I haven't really explained myself concerning the extended crew.**  
 **So as not to overwhelm myself when writing and making overly two dimensional characters that serve no purpose but as extra muscle on a crew that dosen't really need any more muscle, I will be limiting the extended crew number to three.**  
 _ **Shipguard.**_  
 _ **Lookout**_  
 _ **Treasurer.**_  
 **I was always intending to make the extended crew this small, but I failed to explain that. That's on me. My bad. Now, you can leave a suggestion in the reviews for who you want to see get what position, the characters with the most requests will be put up in the poll. Just please don't vote for someone who dosen't make sense, but be aware that as this is a fanfic, I can alter certain details so that certain characters do end up joining.**

 **Romances:**  
 **Any and all romance will be very slow burn, we'll probably not see anything significant until Sabaody at least, but it'll get there. It'll take so long because these characters have never shown any romantic interests (Sanji dosen't count) so if there is to be any organic feeling to it, it'll take a while. Also, I don't do harems. They don't make sense to me.**

 **In the mean time, Chapter 4.**

* * *

Zoro panted heavily as he took up his stance once more, sweat beading his forehead. Eyes narrowed, he gripped the hilt of his nameless blade tightly, knuckles white as he focused. He needed to put all his intent, all his will behind making this man bleed, otherwise it would merely end in failure once more. Gritting his teeth, he lifted his blade and lunged forward.

Zoro grunted in exertion as he brought the steel down with all his might, meeting the ebony sheen of his opponents wrist once more. With the sound of steel on steel and the splitting of wood, the small boat rocked back and forth under the shift in momentum. Stumbling slightly, Zoro nearly fell from the loss of balance before staying himself.

"Could you two idiots please stop rocking the boat?!" Nami shouted in frustration. Zoro spared her a sidelong glance before shrugging. Looking back to Luffy, he found his sword embedded a quarter way through his arm, the teens haki having saved his hand being removed completely. Not that he couldn't have just grown it back, being a tree man and that Zoro's blade didn't hurt his flesh and blood body as his sword wasn't imbued with haki.

"But we need to train." Luffy pouted childishly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Luffy's right." Zoro agreed. "Besides, you could probably stand to learn this stuff too."

"You can train when we find an island! I don't know about you, but I don't fancy being thrown overboard because you two idiots went and capsized us!" Zoro had to concede her point. After all, Luffy, having eaten a devil fruit, would simply sink like a rock. Slowly, he sheathed the nameless blade and made to sit down, Luffy whining as he did so.

"She's got a point, Captain." Zoro sighed, reclining with his hands behind his head and eyes closed. "After all, you ate a devil fruit."

"But I made stabilizers..." Luffy sulked, nevertheless Zoro felt the movement of the boat as he sat down.

Opening an eye, Zoro spied the 'Stabilizers'. They were connected by two arcing arms each that grew out of the side of the main boat, and were in the shape of a thin row boat, providing a greater balance, although with the force of Zoro's blows, they didn't help as much as any of them would have liked. Originally, Luffy had made them to help explain devil fruits to Nami, having already done so to Zoro before they even made it to orange town.

Nami had, at first, adamantly believed everything she saw in the fight between Luffy and Buggy had been but a bad dream, but after further demonstration from Luffy, she had been forced to believe what she had been told. Then came the conversation that Zoro had been looking forward to the most. Haki. They were taught the fundamental basics, being that Armaments haki was an extension of their spirit as an armor to defend or strengthen their attacks with, while Observation haki was essentially a sixth sense of the world around them, allowing them to predict certain acts done towards themselves.

Zoro had then felt something he hadn't in a long time. A pushing in his gut. A drive, burning with brilliant flames of need. He needed to master these abilities. He needed to use them to become stronger, and then he would be able to challenge _Them_. The burning need to master something hadn't been this severe ever since he'd finally mastered his own three sword style. He missed that feeling.

The sound of movement was soon followed by the feeling of the boat made a small adjustment to the starboard side. Cracking an eye open, Zoro observed as Nami stared intently at the small telltales on the sail, little strands of wool that had been attached to help to owner read the movements of the wind. She was good, Zoro would give her that, and he was glad that she had been convinced to join them on their merry little crew.

It had been an interesting conversation, to say the least. She had been apprehensive, Which was something Zoro could understand after she had woken up from her Kings Will induced sleep to find herself on a small fishing vessel with two pirates, one swinging a sword at the other, who didn't seem to be able to die as he survived hundreds of slashes. She had screamed quite loudly.

But that was when things grew odd to Zoro. After a brief explanation as to who they were, Nami having run into Luffy before apparently, and the revelation that they had stolen nine and a half million Berri from Buggy, the remaining half a million going to the town to help the rebuilding process, she became much more co-operative, even going as far as to offer her services as a navigator.

Zoro shrugged. So long as no one was stabbed in the back and his Captain was fine with it, he wouldn't raise any concerns. Slowly, he directed his open eye to his Captain, and frowned. The kid was somewhat of an enigma. He had explained his powers and his goal, but beyond that, Zoro knew nothing about him. The same could be said vice versa. Zoro just felt that the members of the crew ought to know who they were going to be fighting and living beside for the foreseeable future.

It was then that a particular possibility of topic crossed the swordsman's mind. "Hey Luffy, if you can't be hurt without the use of haki, then you had to have fought someone with haki to get that scar under you eye, right?" Zoro questioned, Luffy eyes widening before diverting suspiciously to the left. "Bet there's a story there." Luffy, however, seemed the have found the boat's deck to be very interesting.

Zoro spied Nami giving the Captain a curious look out the corner of his eye.

"Nope, nothing much to tell there." Luffy denied, his arms folded over his chest as he looked every which way but at his crew mates. Zoro and Nami shared a cruel sinister grin at the sight as they discovered in unison a glaring weakness that could be used to exploit their Captain.

"You're a terrible liar." Nami said slyly.

"I am not!" Luffy cried out with all the maturity of a toddler arguing the existence of light.

"No use denying it. You're as clear as glass." Zoro said smugly as he closed his eyes and leaned back into a comfortable position. "So hurry up and spill."

"No!"

"Luffy..." Nami pressed.

"Nu-uh." Luffy shook his head.

"You can deny all you want, but we'll know if you lie, so we'll just keep pestering you until we get something." Zoro pointed out.

"Not happening."

"Well if not, then I guess that we're gonna have to make up something that would fit." The navigator suddenly felt something akin to a sugar rush run up her spine as possible stories sprouted in her mind like weeds. "Hey Zoro, I bet it was something super lame, like maybe..." She pretended to ponder as Luffy started to sweat. "He ran through a glass door as a kid." Luffy looked both relived and insulted.

"No no no." Zoro smirked, drawing back up Luffy's nervous bout. "A guy that trashed a marine base? He totally slipped on a wet floor and landed on a sharp pebble." And Luffy relaxed again.

"The one to put down Buggy's tyranny?" Luffy began to fidget uncomfortably, Zoro watching his nervous mood swings with growing amusement. "He had to have gotten close-lined by a tree branch." And once more, Luffy deflated at the insult, but before Zoro could pitch anymore ideas, it seemed Luffy had had enough of his emotional roller coaster of their guessing game as to the pathetic ways that Luffy could have gotten his scar.

"Alright, fine!" Luffy finally caved, pulling his hat down over his eyes as if to sulk. "I stabbed myself in the face when I was a kid."

Zoro and Nami turned to glance at each other and blinked once, twice before looking back to their Captain.

"You stabbed yourself in the face?" Zoro deadpanned. A slight nod from Luffy was the final nail in the coffin as the swordsman leaned his head back and let out loose roaring laughter, Nami failing miserably to hide her own laughter as she fell, covering her mouth all the while. "You dumbass! Why did you do that?!" Zoro managed through his laughter as he wiped away a tear as both he and Nami tried to get control of themselves.

"Well you see, there was a pirate crew stopping at my home village when I was little..." Luffy mumbled, his hat still covering his face but both his crew mates could see the tugging of a smile underneath, yet both Zoro and Luffy missed the dark look to cross Nami's face. "And these guys were really cool. They had parties a lot, told me stories of their adventures and all the places they had been to." Slowly, Luffy leaned back, shifting his hat until he was looking up into the blue sky.

"I tried to convince them to take me with them. To take me on their great adventures, but they'd always laugh me off, saying I was too young, just a kid. So one day, I got the bright idea of proving how brave I was and that I was man enough to go with them. So when they stopped for supplies, I ran up to them and announced that I was a man. They laughed as always, until I pulled out a knife and stabbed myself." Luffy chuckled as the memory as he kept a hand on his hat, the feel of it bringing not just comfort, but fond memories.

" _That's why he's the way he is._ " Nami thought. " _Not because he wants to pillage, but because he was raised thinking pirates as people just wanting to have adventures and fun._ " In some ways she envied he Captain, but in others, not so much. " _The wake up call of reality of what most pirates are like must have been a hell of a shock to him, but he's still looking for an adventure... Why?_ "

Zoro snorted. "You went a very smart kid." He grinned.

"No." Luffy laughed. "I wasn't."

"You're lucky you know." Frowning, both Luffy and Zoro turned to look at Nami. She was stared intently down at the wooden deck, her right hand clutching her left shoulder tightly. "The pirates that came to your home town. You're lucky that they were like they were, not like A-" Nami caught herself, eyes widening somewhat. "Not like others. Not like Buggy."

Luffy's smile dropped, adopting a much more scrutinizing look. He hadn't missed the signs. Zoro simply returned to his neutral scowl as he studied the orange haired girl, sensing the possibly dangerous waters about to be braved. "Yeah, I guess your right." Luffy said somberly. "But I think it's better that they were. Without them, I would be a very different person compared to who I am today." He admitted.

"After all, they were carrying the devil fruit I ate. Their Captain, Shanks-" Both Zoro's and Nami's eyes widened at the name. "-helped train me to control my powers and even taught me about haki. He taught me what it means to be a man, and that freedom of dreams, freedom _to_ dream, should be valued above all else." He said, removing his hat to stare down at it with pride and reverence. "That, and he made me a promise. This hat symbolizes that promise."

"When you say Shanks..." Nami began cautiously.

"Red Haired Shanks? One of the Emperors of the Sea?" Luffy grinned cheekily. "Yeah, but he hasn't visited my home since he took up the title. He's been really busy." Luffy waved off.

"Shanks..." Zoro muttered, an oddly determined gleam in his eyes a he stared off into nothing.

"What do you know of him?" Luffy asked, eager to hear what others had to say of his childhood idol.

"That he's one of the most powerful swordsmen in the world." Zoro said. "He and Dracule Mihawk, the Warlord, regularly duel on an even basis. They're what every swordsman worth his blade aspires to be. What we aspire to _beat_." The reverence in Zoro's voice made Nami feel like he was talking about the religion he subscribed to, the respect was dripping off his words.

"Yep." Luffy chuckled, placing his hat back on top of his head. "That's Shanks alright." Nami rolled her eyes at her Captain, but couldn't feel something regarding his experiences. Red Haired Shanks, one of the four most powerful pirates in the world, had trained him, had visited him as a child and Luffy of all people got to know him like a Fun Uncle.

She couldn't help but feel envious. " _What if it was Shanks that had come to my home instead of Arlong? How different would things be?_ " Nami wondered somewhat melancholy to herself. But that dull cloud over her head was cracked by a smirk. " _Belle-mere probably would have tried to call the marines on him as soon as he showed his face._ "

A change of the wind, ever so slight, seemed to snatch her from her fantasies. Whipping her head around, Nami spied a few clouds sitting atop a botch of green and brown in the distance. "Land ho!" She announced, scrambling to steer the ship while ordering Luffy, or more accurately his wooden limbs, to reconfigure the sail to her specifics.

All the while she couldn't help but picture her mother chasing one of the most infamous pirates in the world around Coconami Island with a kitchen knife while on the transponder to marine HQ, Shanks holding his hat to his head as he high tailed it from the angry woman all the while.

* * *

Garp sighed heavily, arms folded over his chest as he stood in quite contemplation. He had a lot on his mind, such was the life of a Vice Admiral, but now he had the troubles of his family on top of that. He stood alone atop the roof of a ruined marine base. It had once been well maintained, standing against the stem of time with pride and strength, garrisoned with brave and loyal marines willing to give everything to see justice prevail.

Or so he, and so many others, had thought.

He could see it before they had even made landfall, the 153rd Marine base had been destroyed. Entire buildings missing, crumbled to rubble, walls having been torn apart and the marine base structure wasn't even touching the ground, but hovering some three or so meters above the dirt, suspended by the density of the jungle that looked to have grown through the entire base, leaving it in disrepair. They'd have to tear it all down and rebuild, yet the only thought to have gone through his head when he saw it was one of pride. " _Yep. Luffy's been here._ "

But it only got worse from that moment on.

Not long after he had arrived on the island, he had been met by fear from the common people. They shrunk away at the sight of him, cowering, while non dared to look him in the eye. It wasn't right, and all the marines with him knew it. Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Garp was seen as the hero of the marines for his legendary battles with the infamous pirate king, Gold Roger, yet at that moment, he felt like the pirate king himself.

It hadn't taken long to figure out why. A brief few questions to the local marines had revealed all, and Garp was furious. He had found this 'Captain Morgan' in a makeshift infirmary, heavily bandaged from an apparent lost fight. He had cowered before Garp as well, but unlike the townspeople, he gave Morgan a reason to to so.

Without so much as a greeting, Garp had seized Morgan and thrown him out of the medical bed and out into the streets before dragging him down the streets, verbally tearing him apart as he did so, loudly proclaiming him to be imprisoned before the entire town and then throwing him form the street and onto the his ship. But he hadn't finished there. Garp had turned to the people of Shells town, tears in his eyes, and bowed in front of them all, apologizing profusely for Morgan's actions and promising swift justice.

Garp sighed as he imagined the report he was going to have to write up for Sengoku. He had a headache already, and his pen hadn't even touched paper yet, nor had he heard Sengoku venting. He cringed at either thought.

"Vice-Admiral Garp, sir?" Garp's back straightened at the voice, turning to see a young man in perfect dress code giving the hero of the marines and proud salute. "We've finished clearing up the market district, sir!" He announced.

Nodding, Garp looked back over his shoulder at the town beneath. They had been there for a day and half now, the people of the town still not trusting the marines yet, but he couldn't blame them. Morgan had left more than a stain on the marines good name, he had left a horrible scar upon the trust of the people the marines were supposed to protect.

While Garp was glad his grandson and his apparent new friend, a guy named Roronoa Zoro, had beaten down the corrupt bastards, it meant he had to witness a town who saw pirates as the heroes, while marines were to be feared and hated. It may not have been much, but Garp had ordered the men under his command and those previously under former Captain Morgan to assist with anything the townspeople might need, which mostly amounted to manual labor, cleaning and repairing whatever was broken.

It left a bittersweet taste on his tongue.

"Move on to the docks and industrial districts next." Garp ordered, his gravelly voice uncharacteristically subdued.

"Sir, yes sir!" The marine then took off, relaying Garp's orders to his fellow marines as he went.

Garp returned to his melancholy state of thought, eyes focusing on the blue horizon that was the ocean. " _If Morgan was the first marine that Luffy cam across, then he'd refuse to join without a second thought._ " Garp thought with a sigh. " _Can't say I blame him though._ "

"Sir!" Rolling his eyes, Garp turned about once more, only to pause. The kid, because someone that small could only be described as a child, barely came up to Garp's knee. Granted, Garp was nearly ten feet tall, but this runt was just ridiculous. The pink haired runt was trying to give Garp a salute, but his shaking knees and trembling arms made him look somewhat pathetic, yet he wore a marine uniform, and Garp could respect anyone that was brave enough to put one that on.

"What is it marine?" Garp grunted, but was taken aback by the glimmer of pride in the boys eye at being addressed as such.

"Sir, I'm delivering a message from your ship sir! We've received orders to head to Orange town on the nearby Organ Islands! Apparently Buggy the Clown has been subdued, sir!" The boy reported.

Garp frowned, looking back out onto the water again. " _Organ islands? I know them, they're not too far from here... Was this Luffy again? Maybe... Best go and see for myself._ " He decided. "Alright marine." Garp began, looking back at the pink haired runt. "I want a request sent out to HQ for a new commanding officer for this base. One who respects and works for the people. When that's done, we're heading out with a small retrieval group to Orange town to take Buggy in. Prep three ships for departure. I'll wait here until the new Captain has arrived. Got it?" He asked.

"Sir, yes sir!" The boy shouted excitedly.

"Dismissed." Garp muttered, watching the boy snap a crisp, confident salute this time before rushing off to follow his orders. Garp felt a smirk creep onto his face at the sight. " _Good kid. Bit skinny and short though. Wonder if he's been trained right..._ "

* * *

Sand and stone ground against the bow of the small boat as it came to a lurching halt. Small waves lapped at the beach as three sets of feet swung off the edge and sunk into the soft, warm sand. Luffy sported a large grin as he looked about the island, making no effort to hide the child like excitement and wonder he felt. Zoro arched backwards, arms reaching high as he twisted his joint with loud, satisfying pops.

"Ah, good to be back on land." He grinned to himself, subconsciously readjusting the swords at his hip.

"According to this map." Nami muttered as she unfurled a large, square piece of paper. It was worn and old, the edged being somewhat ratty, but she could read off of it what Luffy and Zoro could only dream. "There is a village on the island, but it's not the big."

"Cool, I could use something to eat." Luffy smiled, inspecting their surroundings. As far as his eyes could see, the beach was walled off from the rest of the island by sheer stone cliffs that looked to be about ten meters tall. Not a problem for him, but he could see the natural defenses being an advantage against attacks. It was a wonder this island wasn't more populated. But ahead of them, having been spotted by Nami as they approached, was a pathway caved into the cliff directly into the island, looking like a ramp from the beach to island interior.

Zoro was yawning when he noticed the twitching bush, his eyes immediately sharpening. With a blur of movement, his hand was on the scabbard of one of his blades, slowly pushing it free with his thumb. "We've got company." He said in a dark voice, eyes never leaving the bush. Luffy frowned as Nami looked up from her map, taking a precautionary step behind Luffy, just in case.

Luffy pushed out with his senses and felt them roll out across the area around him. The beach, the boats behind him, the sea and finally up the cliff and foliage, where he locked onto four distinct presences. He felt the biggest one maneuvering himself around a tree while the small three seemed to be getting ready for something. Luffy frowned. " _Wonder what they're doing..._ "

A breif rustle from the bushes lining the cliff was all the warning the trio got before short sticks were raised, a black cloth bearing a skull and crossbones upon each. "Huh..." Zoro grunted as, slowly spreading through the bushes, more black flags appeared and, Zoro noted, all being raised in groups of three. "Well I'm pretty sure I've got a bearing on how many there are..." He gave Luffy a questioning look, his hand resting firmly on the hilt of one of his nameless swords.

"Nah." Luffy waved off, a mischievous grin on his face. "I wanna see where this is going."

"Suit yourself." Zoro shrugged, folding his arms over his chest as a lone teen with a tall stick in one hand waving a generic pirate flag while the other held a slingshot. " _This is going to be entertaining..._ "

He was a skinny teen underneath his brown overalls, with black wholly hair kept under a cap. However, Luffy's first thought was of his most striking feature. " _Wow, what a nose..._ " It had to point directly out at least three inches.

"I am the leader of the great pirate crew that conquered this village, Usopp!" The newcomer boldly declared. Behind him, Zoro could hear Nami sigh, covering her face with her hand in secondhand-embarrassment. "Everyone praises me and addresses me as Captain Usopp!" The curled haired boy continued. "If you're thinking of attacking this village, you should just save your strength, otherwise my 80 million me-"

"There's four of them." He stated blandly. Immediately, Usopp faltered, his face paling as he took a fearful step back.

Zoro gave his Captain a pointed look with a raised eyebrow. "Haki?" Zoro smirked as Luffy nodded, the swordsman turning back to the now panicking boy atop the cliffs. " _Damn that haki stuff is convenient. Gotta learn that..._ "

A bush bustled with movement and out spilled three children, each trembling and staring at three pirates with fearfully wide eyes. "How did he know?" Came the high pitched cry of the child furthermost to the left, the other two gripping each other tightly.

"Witch!" Shouted the boy on top, decidedly pointing at Nami.

"Why are they shouting at me?!" Nami gnashed out in a burst of anger. Her outburst, however, threw the children into a state of panic. The three boys clutched each other and shrieked before turning tail and running.

"Run away!"

"The witch is gonna eat us!"

Luffy chuckled, Zoro not containing his own smirk, as they heard Nami growling over the top of the sound of her teeth grinding together.

"Hey! Don't just leave me!" The oldest of the quartet shouted, yet when his companions failed to even spare him a glance over their shoulders, he slumped in defeat.  
"Guys..." He muttered, and Luffy couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. Yet he recovered from his bout of betrayal with miraculous speed, rounding from behind the tree to face the three pirates, a slingshot help high in his hand his hand as he muttered. "Alright, well if that's how it's gonna be..."

"It doesn't matter if I'm alone or with an army at my back! I'll protect this village from pillaging pirates with my life, so if you want to get to my home, you're gonna have to go through me!" The teen boldly declared, shouting it out across the beach with an iron will that would have been impressive, had it not been for his knocking knees and quivering hands as they held his slingshot tightly.

"Um, we're not here to pillage." Luffy pointed out rather lamely.

"Oh, really?" The teen asked, seemingly taken aback at the favorable turn of events. "So... you're not pirates?"

"Oh we are pirates." Luffy clarified. "But we're not here to pillage anything." He then chose to ignore Nami's fist bouncing off of his shoulder, as she couldn't reach his head.

"Idiot! Don't just go around advertising it like that!" She shouted at him, shaking her now sore fist. Punching a tree man hurt.

"You know, you look kinda familiar..." Luffy muttered as he squinted at Usopp, wounding to Nami's pride at being ignored causing her growl behind him, shaking her aching fist threateningly at him. Several faces passed through Luffy's mind as he studied Usopp for a brief moment, before he was struck with realization. "Hey, do you know a guy named Yassop?"

Nami's eyes narrowed a she watched Usopp. His eyes had widened at the name, but now they were scrunched up with the rest of his face, as if he was torn between being seen as an indifferent hard-ass, bouncing in emotion or weighed with sorrow. It was an odd look, to say the least. But nevertheless, her hand inched to her hidden bo-staff, the fire in the teens eyes making her nervous.

"Y-Yeah, that's my dad. Why? Do you know him?" He asked uneasily, clearly unsure how to feel.

"Yeah I know him." Luffy said easily. "I grew up hearing all the stories he told about you. He's on the pirate crew that visited my home a few times!" The pirate grinned, pointing his thumb over his shoulder out to sea, seemingly oblivious that his home island was in a completely different direction.

"R-Really?" Usopp managed as, surprising all three pirates, tears began to leak from his eyes. "You know my dad? What's he like? My mother always told me that he set out to sea as a pirate in search of adventure, so I never really got to meet him, but..." He paused, looking down at Luffy from the top of the cliff with a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Do you think you could tell me what kind of man my father is?" Nami relaxed at Usopp's words and from the corner of her eye, she could see that Zoro had been in much the same mind as her.

"Yeah, sure!" Luffy grinned easily, the way Usopp's face glowed at the words made Nami feel bad for thinking he was going to be hostile. "I could tell you loads of stuff about him! But could we get some food while we're at it?"

"Yeah, sure!" Usopp readily agreed, pointing to the center of the island behind him. "There's a great little food store in the village. Come on! My treat!" Luffy grinned at the declaration and Nami felt a pang of guilt for what was to come. If what little she knew of Luffy was true, then he was going to make Usopp regret those words.

* * *

"My dad's the marksman of Red-Haired Shanks's crew..." Usopp sighed with a wistful look on his face, leaning on the table and propped up by his elbow. He sat at the end of the table, Nami and Zoro to his right while Luffy took up the entire side of the booth to his left. Luffy had just finished regaling the eagerly listening Usopp of all of his fathers stories and achievements, including the time he had shot the wings off a fly behind him aiming through the reflection of a mirror.

Usopp grinned, sitting up just a little straighter. "To disregard his own life and indulge himself in the vast and endless sea..." He said to himself, his eyes looking far off as he nodded to himself. "I'm proud to call him my father."

It had been entertaining to hear of Yasopp's exploits, and heart warming to see the pride and admiration written on Usopp's face, though Zoro could see Nami wanted to move the conversation on to more important matters. Her smile was tight lipped and her eyes, while kind, glowered with impatience.

"Say Usopp." Luffy began, setting the bone from his recently finished ham leg down on his plate. "I know this isn't a very big village, but I was wondering if there was anyone here selling a ship, or anything bigger than what we've got?" He asked, curbing the subject with the tack of a bull in a china shop. But nonetheless, even Luffy caught the way that Usopp seemed to sit straighter, his eyes widening fractionally.

"I-I'm sorry, but there's no ships on this island." He offered weakly.

"Really? No one?" Nami asked, her earlier impatience now squashed in light of new conversation, and her hopes of a ship being bought brought out her cat-thief side as she leaned in closer to the local, looking every bit the damsel in need.

"N-Nope, sorry. No o-one at all." Usopp stammered out, his eyes looking everywhere but at the three pirates.

"Say, there was a large mansion on top of the hill back there." Zoro drawled, cleaning out his ear with his pinky. "We could talk to them. They might know someone who has a ship for sale somewhere." Luffy nodded, thinking the idea a good one. Usopp looked all the paler for it, however.

"Yeah, we could ask them." He muttered as he scratched his chin. "Hey Usopp, you wouldn't happen to know them, would you?" The tree man inquired.

"You can't go there!" Usopp snapped, slamming his hand down on the table with a thunderous look on his face. All three pirates turned to look at him, curious as to what could cause such a ship in the boy, and with all three pirates looking at him, Usopp suddenly reverted to the shaking boy that had met them atop the cliffs on the island coast. "I-I suddenly remembered!" He announced, standing up so fast his chair collapsed backwards. "I've got somewhere I need to be right bow so I gotta run, bye!" He announced, dashing from the small eatery faster than most would have thought he could run.

Luffy blinked, almost disappointed as he leaned out of the booth and out the door to see Usopp's shrinking form disappearing into the distance. "Huh." He frowned. "That was weird." Nami rolled her eyes at the simple observation.

"Thank you for that, Captain obvious." She mumbled.

"No, I'm Captain Luffy. I don't know any Captain obvious."

 _'Whack!'_

"Oww!"

"Why are you crying? You're the one who hit me!" Luffy accused indignantly, pointing a finger at Nami as she shook her sore hand.

"Because you're made of wood!" Nami shouted back furiously. "It hurts when you hit wood!" The snickering beside her earned Zoro cool glare that promised pain if her didn't silence himself.

"Well if it hurts so much, then maybe you shouldn't hit me." Luffy pouted, crossing his arms over his chest while Nami ground her teeth and growled feral enough to scare any fearsome beast. Whatever retort she was about to make was cut off when the doors slammed open.

"The Usopp pirate crew is here!" Announced a high voice. Nami glanced up, seeing the old man manning the counter reading a newspaper. The old man looked up from his reading, glanced at the door and smiled a kind, grandfatherly smile before going back to his reading.

"Huh." Nami thought as she leaned out of the small booth and looked to the door, curious as to what the ruckus was about. "What's going on?" She muttered as she spied three children holding up what looked like short wooden swords. As soon as they caught sight of her, however, they seemed to freeze.

"T-The Captain's not here..." One of the boys, the one with a red bandanna, stuttered.

"Don't tell me..." The boys were glasses whimpered meekly. The boy in the lead, wearing a light green shirt, dashed forward until he stood a the end of the table, his toy sword still held in the air.

"Hey, you pirates!" He shouted, his voice cracking and quivering in a way that Nami almost felt sorry for him as his knees knocked. "What have you done to captain Usopp?!" His two friends then rushed forward to stand beside him, shuddering in fear all the while as they shouted similar demands.

Nami eyed the kids curiously, then turned to look at her own crew, only to stop short on Luffy. She didn't like the evil glint in his eye as he gave Zoro a grin. Feeling awfully like she'd been left out of any loop here, Nami narrowed her eyes at the two. Luffy leaned back and yawned, his knees knocking the bottom of the table to rattle the pile of plates and bringing them to the attention of the children.

"Man, that meat sure was good." He smiled, watching as they slowly grew pale, evil thoughts surfacing in their minds.

"Your Captain." Zoro began as he leaned forward on the table, a malicious smile bearing down on the three boys as their eyes widened. "Was delicious!" Nami sighed and rolled her eyes.

All thee boys shrieked in fear before simultaneously pointing at Nami. "Witch!" They screamed in accusation.

"Why are you shouting at me?!" She shouted back, her fist delivering a solid ' _Thump_ ' to each of the boys heads and they fell back onto the ground in shock, Luffy and Zoro roaring with laughter. "Don't you laugh!" She wheeled about to face them, both fists raised before delivering the same punishment. With a loud _Crack_ , Nami grit her teeth, all laughter having stopped as Luffy and Zoro's faces were bent down to face the desk. The navigator would have felt somewhat proud of managing to hit Luffy's head, even if he had to be sitting down for her to do it, but the thought was overshadowed by the throbbing pain in each fist.

"You know." Luffy quitely muttered, lifted his head back up. "You should stop doing that before you really hurt yourself."

"Agreed." Zoro grumbled as he sat straighter.

"What are you two made of?!" Nami shouted in frustration, cradling her aching hands as both Luffy and Zoro howled with laughter again.

"Hey Luffy." Zoro began, still wearing that insufferable grin. "You sure you still want to teach us haki? Cause I can't wait to see what Nami does when she learns that armament stuff." Luffy's laughter died in his throat, eyes wide and skin paling as he looked to see Nami smile a sweet, innocent smile that was betrayed by the shard of evil in her eyes.

* * *

Luffy stared up at the large walls of the mansion, the pearly white marble standing tall and proud. The walls looked thick and heavy, a flare of carved decal sprouting in well made flourishes where the roof met the walls and above the doors. Imposing as it was, surrounded by a black iron fence and unreasonably large gate with two guards posted outside, Luffy had only one thought.

"If someone can afford a house like this, then why are they living in such a small village." He asked, looking to Zoro and Nami as they walked beside him.

"Peace and quite?" Nami offered after Zoro's lazy and uncaring shrug. His First Mate's attitude was one he then mirrored, shrugging as he lost interest in the subject.

"If you can't find the captain around this time, he's probably here." Said Pepper, one of the three boys that had led Luffy and his crew to the mansion. The small trio had introduced themselves as the Usopp pirates, with Usopp being their Captain. Pepper was the boy with the glasses, while Onion was the one in the green shirt and Carrot was the tallest one with a red bandanna. Luffy had found their names amusing.

"Yeah? What for?" Luffy asked, never taking his eyes from the mansion as he wove his fingers together behind his neck.

"He comes to lie." Carrot stated simply. Zoro raised an eyebrow at the boys.

"Lie? But that's a horrible thing to do!" Nami said, looking almost horrified by Carrot's words as she ignored the bland stares of judgement Luffy and Zoro sent her, their want to call her out on the hypocrisy burning in their eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with it." Onion spoke up. "It's different." He said, looking to pepper for support.

"Right, it's different." The boy supplied.

"Care to explain?" Zoro asked, his arched eyebrow returning.

"Lady Kaya lives in this mansion." Pepper began, looking to his friends to help him, something Carrot did gladly.

"A year ago, her parents came down with a sickness. They died." He said somberly. "She's been depressed ever since. Despite all the money she has, there was nothing the cheer her up." Luffy then idly noticed a pattern in the order in which the boys spoke as Pepper took up the story.

"That's why the Captain makes up outrageous lies. He makes her laugh." Onion, the shortest boy, suddenly straightened in what looked to be pride, a beaming smile on his face "Captain's lying ability is first class." He boasted.

"Huh." Luffy looked to his crew mates, Nami looking more thoughtful after the telling of the story, while Zoro just looked bored. "So he's actually a pretty good guy..." The wood man muttered, all three of the boys nodding in agreement.

"I like the way he meddles in other peoples business." Pepper declared, and Nami's left eye twitched. That should not be something a child looks up to.

"I like the way he over reacts to everything." Carrot admitted, Nami wearing a smile as she listened, understanding how children could find that amusing.

"I like the way he lies." Onion announced, and Nami's smile became much more strained. That was definitely something a child should emulate. Maybe she should have a talk with Usopp concerning his behavior around kids...

"So he's been cheering this Lady up?" She asked, pushing past her thoughts as she bent down to look the boys in the eye.

"Yeah, she has!" Pepper grinned, Luffy silently confirming his theory that the three kids seemed to take turns at talking.

"Cool, then let's go ask her for a ship!" Luffy grinned his wide grin.

"It was Usopp that cheered her up, not you." Unfortunately, Zoro's reminder went ignored by everyone there.

"But getting in is impossible." Carrot mumbled dejectedly, Nami and Zoro immediately picking up on Luffy's straightening at what he most likely took as a challenge. "The fence is too high to climb and there are two really big bodyguards by the gate at all times." The young boy said. "Only Captain Usopp knows the secret way in."

Luffy slowly turned to look at his crew mates, and Nami felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she looked to see his feet having vanished into the soil as Luffy's skin turned to tree bark at his ankles. "Then I guess we'll just have to take the _other_ secret way in."

Nami paled at his words. "Oh no. No no no n-"

The sound of the earth tearing cut her off and drew the attention of everyone that was not Luffy. Whip like wooden lashes sprouted out of the soil, binding around one another like snakes as the thick, bark covered wood of small trunks emerged, fusing together into a singular, solid trunk that grew higher and higher until it towered taller than the fence and as thick as Zoro's shoulders. Slowly, Nami watched as it stopped growing and started tilting. Almost gently, the wooden spire leaned over the fence to touch down on the immaculate laws on the other side.

Seeing the large trunk gently arc over the fence, the Usopp pirates watched with jaws on the ground, their eyes having almost left their sockets. Along the sides of the trunk, green buds burst into life. Thin, bright green growth grew in meter long intervals, growing upwards until they reached a uniform length, where the tips of the greenery parted in either direction to link up with the growths on either side.

"Come on." Waiting less than a second since its quick construction, Luffy took off, his feet now flesh and bone once more. The group remained still, however, watching in awe as Luffy took the first step onto the wooden construct. The wood bent and compressed upon itself under his foot until it was a single flat platform. Luffy took another step, and another. Each time, the wood would react the same: pressing in on itself to create steps up the gentle curve of the trunk. Stopping at the top of the trunk's arc, Luffy looked to his crew and new friends. "Well what are you waiting for? Come on!" He grinned easily.

Wordlessly, Zoro marched off to join his Captain, taking the steps with ease. Seeing this, the Usopp pirates let out carefree cheers at what they had just seen, wearing the largest smiles they had even managed as they scrambled up the steps.

"I really hope I never get used to this..." Nami heard herself mutter before she set off after her captain. Once on the other side of the fence, Nami let out a whistle of appreciation at what she saw. This garden was kept immaculate! The lawn was soft under her sandals, almost sponge like, and was trimmed tidily whenever it met the garden or the path winding through it. Hedges lined the walls of the mansion, sheered into a perfect square shape. All number or flowers bloomed in a vast array of beautiful colors from the dark, rich soil of the garden. And the tre-. "What are you doing?" Nami nearly screamed as she caught sight of her Captain.

Turning about, Luffy gave his navigator the most innocent look he could. "I'm helping with their gardens..." He said with a pout. Nami probably would have let him off the hook with that alone if not for what was behind him. Zoro stood straight and proud, _Wado Ichimonji_ gripped tightly with his other swords remaining in their sheaths as he held the sword to the sky, the swordsman's face set in a noble glare that one would expect to see on the statue of a great warrior. Unfortunately, the small shrubbery tree next to him, having been a perfect sphere and the last in a line of trees along the pathway not seconds before, was now a perfect, life sized replica of the swordsman.

"You moron!" Nami growled. "You've gone and ruined their tree! Turn it back!" She demanded hotly.

"Aw man." Luffy moaned, planting his roots once more to connect with the small shrubbery tree. "Do I have to change those ones back too?" He asked, pointing his thumb at the line of shrubbery trees along side the pathway, each one shaped like a different person, and Nami found her voice lost in her horror. The recognized the first one, a grand image of Monkey D. Garp, the hero of the marines, standing proudly with his fists on his hips and a beaming smile.

The next one would easily be recognized as Red Haired Shanks, one of the four emperors of the sea. He wore a long cloak that covered much of his body, but Nami could see that the inside and had been sculptured out too to allow you to see the three pistols and the cutlass on his belt, along with the cheeky smile and lighthearted look that was suspiciously close to Luffy's.

The next was of the greatest pirate known to history. Gold Roger, the king of the pirates. He stood atop the figure piece of his ship, the Oro Jackson, with a sword drawn and a look of pride and excitement, like he was off on some great adventure. The next tree was shape as Luffy, his straw hat being held in place as he grinned mischievously, wind blowing his vest out being him. But it was the last one that surprised her.

It was her. Nami. Standing tall with a large sack over her shoulder proudly displaying the Berri sign, the glint of misdeeds in her eyes and the victorious smirk on her lips being an astoundingly accurate depiction of her. She felt touched. Despite being a member of Luffy's crew for barely a day, he already seemed to hold her in high enough opinion as to include her among his friends and idols when shaping tree sculptures. While it might not seem much to others, Nami had never truly had any friends before. Stealing from pirates, despised in her home village and a prisoner of Arlong meant that her only friend she had ever had was her sister, Nojiko. To her, it was a heart warming display.

But before she could comment, a voice drifted over from a nearby window of the mansion.

"Oh, hello there. Who are you?" Came the soft voice of a young woman. Startled, the small group wheeled about to see a pale girl with platinum blonde hair leaning out a window next to the thick branch of a tall tree so that, if Nami had to guess, she could talk face to face with the teen sitting on the tree branch: Usopp. Usopp himself looked wide eyed, clearly surprised to be seeing his recent acquaintances with his close friends, let alone seeing them all here.

"Hi!" Luffy waved with that cheeky grin of his. "I'm Luffy, and this i-"

"Ah, it's you guys!" Usopp quickly interrupted, the sudden nervous sweat that broke out across his brow earning him a suspicious look from both the swordsman and the navigator as Usopp turned back to his friend. "Don't worry about them, they heard how great I was so they came to ask to join the Usopp pirates!" He announced as he proudly puffed out his chest.

"No, that's not why we're here." Luffy stated with such simplicity that Zoro smirked as he watched Usopp deflate like a balloon. "We came here to ask you something."

"Ask something?" The young woman, who could only be assumed as Kaya, suddenly straightened her posture, surprised by the declaration. "From me?"

"Yep!" Luffy said easily, "We're looking to bu-"

"You there!" The sharp, commanding voice cut through the conversation quickly and precisely. "What are you doing here!?" The group looked to their right to find a tall and skinny man dressed in an immaculate, finely pressed black suit with golden decorations. Nami, looking the man over, felt a pang deep in her mind, like a memory struggling to surface, yet brushed it off. It was probably the butlers greasy, slicked back hair that set him off. The look just screamed creep.

"Klahadore..." Kaya mumbled, putting a name to the face.

"You're trespassing." Klahadore snapped sourly with a sneer as he brought his hand up to his glasses, using the joint of his palm and wrist to fix the positioning of his glasses.

" _Yeah. This guy's a weirdo._ " Nami firmly decided.

"And you're causing trouble." Klahadore finished, the sour look not budging as he looked down his nose at the pirates. He probably would have tried to look down at Luffy too, had the young pirate not been a half foot taller than him, but instead just had to settle for ignoring him.

"Who's this guy?" Luffy asked, looking over his shoulder to Usopp and Kaya as he jerked his thumb at the butler, something that greatly irked him if the twitch in his cheek was anything to go by.

"Excuse them, Klahadore, these people are-" Kaya began, but was promptly interrupted.

"You don't need to tell me now." Klahadore interrupted Kaya. "I will listen to your explanation later. For now, I would like all of you people to leave this area. Or do you have something to say?" He asked as he peered down his nose at the group in front of him, Usopp doing his best to slowly slip out of sight and hide behind the tree he was perched in.

Luffy, hearing the offer, grinned down at the butler. "Well yeah. You see, we'd like a ship-"

"Definitely not!" Klahadore snapped, looking like up at Luffy as though he'd just found something rather foul on his shoes. "Usopp!" The butler the whipped about to glare at the tree as the long nosed liar peeked through the branches, looking rather sheepish at having been caught. "I hear rumors of you all the time. You're rather infamous in this village, are you not?"

"Really?" A proud, yet shy smile graced the teen's face.

"So you have faced all kinds of danger before? That's really something at such a young age." The butler muttered, and Usopp's chest swelled with pride, although the three pirates below glared at the bespectacled butler as they caught the undertone of mockery.

"You can address me as Captain Usopp!" Usopp proclaimed. "That will help spread my name around."

"Captain, eh? I've even heard stories about your father." Klahadore sneered, something that Zoro noted he seemed to like doing. It was a wonder he didn't wear a permanent sneer.

"What?" Usopp faltered, looking somewhat heated now as he narrowed his eyes at the butler.

"Klahadore, stop this now!" Kaya demanded from her window.

"You're just the son of a common, piece of scum pirate!" Klahadore said with a rich layer of passionate hatred. Luffy's eyes widened at the venom in the butler's voice. He really had something against pirates. "Although anything you might do won't be much of a surprise, but you would do well to stop pestering my Lady."

"You would call my father common scum..?" Usopp's teeth gritted together, a fury igniting a small flame in his eyes as his hand twitched towards his slingshot.

"You come from a completely different world to my Lady." Klahadore sniffed, pushing his glasses back up his nose with his palm. "Is it money you want?" He tautened. "How much?"

"That's enough Klahadore!" Kaya cried out as she leaned further out the window, he look of pained frustration as her caretaker carelessly lobbed insults upon her closest friend. "Apologize to Usopp at once!"

"Hey Kaya, don't lean out the window like that, it's dangerous." Usopp warned, holding out a hand to her as he urged her back inside.

"Why should I apologize to such a barbaric man, my Lady? I am only speaking the truth." The smugness oozed from Klahadore's voice as he grinned a wolfish grin up at Usopp. "I do sympathize with you, however. You must be filled with hatred and anger for the father abandoned you and your mother to loot and plunder as a pirate."

"Klahadore!" Kaya shouted, sounding scandalized.

"You bastard, one more insult to my father..." Usopp growled through gritted teeth as he simply dropped down from the tree, landing in a crouched as he glared hotly up at the butler, fists clenched in rage.

"Usopp..." Kaya muttered. It seemed no matter her efforts to play peacemaker, the two people closest to her wouldn't stop.

"Why are you so agitated?" Klahadore siad, taking a step forward to meet Usopp, who marched directly towards him. "It's times like these that you just do what you do best; Lie. You could say that you have nothing to do with your father, or that you're not blood related-"

"Shut up!" Usopp roared, fist swinging to land a solid punch to Klahadore's cheek and toppling the taller man.

"Captain!" Carrot called out in worry. Zoro gripped the sheath of one of his nameless blades, thumb pushing against the tsuba to inch the blade out, only to be stopped by Luffy's hand resting on his wrist. Looking to his captain, Zoro raised an eyebrow, but the message was clear: We're seeing how this plays out. One thing was for sure though, Luffy noted. Usopp needed to be taught how to really punch.

"See that?" Klahadore grinned as he propped himself up from the ground with an elbow, his cheek begining to burn red with the starting of a large bruise. "He immediately turns to violence. It's jut like they say, 'Like father, like son'."

"Shut up!" Usopp roared. "I'm proud that my father is a pirate." He declared loudly. "I'm proud that my father has the drive to sail out into open sea to chase his dreams! I'm proud that he became the sniper of Red Haired Shanks and one of the best shooters in the world! I'm proud that my father amounted to more in life than just some no named butler on some backwater village like this!" Kaya and the Usopp pirates recoiled at this, surprised by the declaration while Klahadore hissed at the insult. "Yes, I have pirate blood in me, and I'm proud of it! And some day, I'm going to be just like my father! I'm going to sail away from here and become a great warrior or the sea! I'll somebody known the world over! That's the pride I have in my father!"

"Shows what you know." Klahadore glowered as he slowly rose, brushing his suit off as he stood straight. "Your ideology is naive and childish. You see pirates as someone to emulate, when in reality, they are despicable people. Murderers, rapists and thieves. Pirates are the lowest of the low, and saying such things as you have, it merely proves that the barbarian blood of such scum flows through you're veins." The butler snarled, picking a blade of grass from his shoulder. "If you truly feel that way, Usopp, then leave. Leave this house and never come near it again."

"Fine." Usopp bit out tersely as he glared at the taller man, his very bit of fury roaring in his eyes like a wildfire. Without a word, Usopp roughly brushed past the older man, marching towards his hidden entrance with so much as looking back.

"Usopp!" Kaya called after her friend, pained as she watched his seething form disappear through the small hole in the hedges. "Please, Usopp, come back..." He said weakly, her hands twitching as though she wanted to reach out to him.

Hiding his triumphant smirk behind his hand as he once again pushed his glasses back p his nose with the ball of his palm, Klahadore shifted his piercing eyes over to Usopp's friends. "I would have you leave as well." He stated simply, ignoring the glares that Zoro and Luffy shot him as they slowly made their way past him. With the disturbance taken care of, the butler of the mansion almost gave him a pat on the back, but he couldn't allow himself to relax. He had a meeting long in the waiting to attend to today.

* * *

He always found himself staring out at the ocean when he felt he needed quite introspection. Sitting under a tree atop the cliffs of his home island's coast, breathing in the saltine air and watching the horizon, the distant organ islands but a fuzzy outline in the distance. Usopp took a deep breath, his eyes closed as the sound of the waves on the beach soothed his tension, and slowly breathed out as he leaned against the rough bark of the tree.

"Yo."

Usopp's head whipped around to look behind him. There stood Luffy, a grin on his face and hat atop his head as he leaned against the same tree. "Oh, it's just you." Usopp sighed, relaxing back into the tree again.

"So this is where you went." The pirate said as he looked about and nodded in appreciation. "Nice. I like it."

"So what's it you're here for? What do you want?" Usopp asked, keeping his eyes out on the sea.

"Nothing really." Luffy shrugged, pushing off the tree and sliding into a cross legged position and flopping down onto his back. "What about you? What do you want?" He asked back as he lay there beside Usopp, staring up at the gentle sway of the leaves as beams of sunlight danced between them in a hypnotic fashion to the beat of the lullaby of the beating waves. " _This would be a good place for a nap..._ " Luffy idly noted.

"That damn butler..." Usopp sneered, hunching forward as he did so with his elbows resting on his knees. "Insulting my father like that..."

"Yeah. Didn't like that guy either." Luffy offered. "Not with his whole 'Holier than thou' attitude. And I don't care what anyone says, Yasopp's a great pirate, and a greater man." The pirate said with a soft smile. He missed Shanks and his crew, but that would make the day that they met up once more even greater in his mind.

"Isn't that so?" Usopp grinned, his funk seemingly vanishing at the praise of his father. "In this great age of pirates, my father sails the ocean without knowing what's ahead. I feel really proud of him. I feel proud to be his son." Usopp frowned then, slowly standing as his fists clenched. "But then that bastard went and stepped on that pride..." He seethed. "I'll get him back for that. I promise."

"But are you going to see that Lady again?" Luffy asked offhandedly, but he could see Usopp flinch out of the corner of his eye and smirked. This wasn't about Usopp's pride in his father, not entirely. It was more about that butler, Klahadore, getting in between Usopp and his friend, and doing that he used Usopp's pride against him. It was a dirty move, but who was Luffy to judge? He was a pirate.

"Don't know." Usopp admitted, trying to come off as uncaring, but the waiver in his voice gave him away. "If that butler comes begging for forgiveness, then I might consider it." He grunted.

"Good luck with that." Luffy snorted, watching Usopp's shoulders sag at his words. "That guy would probably need it beaten into him, in anything." He threw out offhandedly. "Speaking of which, you need to learn how to punch properly. Don't get me wrong, that was a solid hit back there, but you're thumb needs to be on the outside of the fist, or else you're going to punch someone and break you thumb." Usopp looked surprised, but nodded. He understood. "Still, how are you gonna get that butler guy to beg for forgiveness? If you do anything too drastic then that Lady won't want you around anymore."

Usopp slowly slumped back against the tree and slid down, a the frown he sported suggesting deep concentration. It couldn't be violent, otherwise that would just prove to Kaya that the damn butler was right. It couldn't be anything too lighthearted, either, otherwise the pompous ass wouldn't take him seriously. He would have to do something that would wear him down over a period of time. Something to slowly drive Klahadore over the edge until he snapped, without Usopp catching the blame. This would be hard, but oh so worth it.

"Well whatever you're going to do, you can do it now if you want." Luffy spoke up, starting the local troublemaker from his thoughts.

"Eh?" Usopp raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the lazing pirate. Luffy hadn't moved, still laying on his back and staring up at the leaves of the tree, but his hand was raised and he was pointing at the beach.

"Down there." He said, slowly pushing himself up, but keeping low. "Come on, and be quite." Unsure and confused, Usopp followed Luffy, crawling about on his belly as they inched over to the edge of the cliff. Below, nearly thirty meters down, walked the immaculately dressed Klahadore, frowning behind his glasses as his fine pressed suit was creased as he awkwardly, carefully placed his feet over rough rocks of the islands shore. Usopp's fists tore at the soil beneath him in anger, but he reeled himself in as curiosity won out.

Behind him followed a man in heart shaped glasses and a outfit that resembled a hippie wizard, his over sized shoes making the trek for him difficult as well, the stranger wobbling and stumbling nearly every step of the way, but he managed. Usopp frowned as he watched them. "What are they doing here? And who's that weird looking guy? I've never seen him before..." Usopp muttered.

"Dunno." Luffy muttered back. "But they're saying something. Keep quite, we might here them." Nodding, Usopp did his best to listen into the seemingly private conversation that they had stumbled upon. Slowly, as words drifted up to the top of the cliff, Usopp's eyes widened, fists white knuckled under the strain. Be it in fear of what might come should what he had just heard come true or anger at what they were planning, he didn't know, but he did know this: He would stop them.

Gritting his teeth, Usopp watched as the two men slowly made their way back the way they came. Growling, he pushed himself off the grass, intent on letting the entire village in on what Klah- No, Kuro, and this Jango man thought was a secret. He would tell his village, the ones he loved, and they would stop this heinous plan. They had to, else everyone would die.

Before he could get off the ground though, Luffy reached over and placed a firm hand on Usopp's back, keeping him there beside the pirate. "No, wait." He said in a voice of iron. "We need to think about this first."

"What?" Usopp asked incredulously as he stared at Luffy. "You heard what they just said, what they're planning to do! We have to go warn the village! To let everyone know that they're in danger!" He argued, intent on saving his home.

"Would they believe you?" Luffy asked, and Usopp felt his drive to save his home crumbling at the lone question.

"B-But..."

"Go to Kaya." Luffy instructed. "Tell her and whoever else is in the mansion about what we heard. Even if they don't believe us completely, they might just believe enough to be more suspicious of Kuro. I'll go get my crew and tell them what's going on. We'll help you out. We'll meet up at that cafe you took us to." Usopp blinked at the taller teen. It made sense. He could warn the people closest to him, even if they didn't believe him he could still say he tried his best, and then he and his new friend could save his village together.

"Alright." Usopp nodded.

"Good." Luffy smiled. "Now get going. You need to get there before Kuro does."

* * *

Zoro was bored. This island was boring. Sunny, peaceful and lazy. He hated places like this, with nothing to ever do. Leaning against a wooden fence with Nami sitting atop it beside him, he began contemplating this whole pirate business. Mihawk is a pirate, a warlord at that. Shanks is a pirate, one of the most powerful people in the entire world, and emperor of the sea. Both were the greatest swordsmen in the world, constantly dueling for superiority in clashes of steel that songs were sung about and epics told of. For someone who's ultimate ambition in life was to become greater then either of them, it had made sense to become a pirate too.

But perhaps he had been hasty. He had been offered to join small crew before, but he had never really had a reason to say yes. But then Luffy stumbled along. Some kid with weird powers and a happy go lucky attitude that saved his life. It only felt right to repay him, and he was certainly strong enough for Zoro to deem him someone worth following. Not to mention he was actually pretty fun to be around when they were aimlessly drifting, and that endless supply of fruit and his being able to patch up any hole in a boat was pretty damn handy. He was a good kid.

He had followed him here, to this peacefully little island in the middle of nowhere, not worth mentioning to anyone other than somewhere to stop for supplies, and now he was bored. Being bored with no one to spar with or anything to train with left him with one thing to do. A very dangerous thing to do: Think. And thinking never lead to a good place for Zoro. He always ended up overthinking everything, so he tried to think as little as possible. But it seemed unavoidable now, as one large question constantly circled his brain.

Should he have waited to join someone with more direction and a plan?

Shaking his head free of such treacherous thoughts, Zoro pushed off of the fence and let himself drop to the ground, catching himself before his face hit the dirt. And like a well oiled machine, he began pumping him arms, pushing himself off the ground and easing himself back down. Again and again, Zoro distracted himself from his thoughts with push ups. " _I don't regret joining Luffy._ " He told himself. " _I'm just bored and a bit antsy. I only got to fight some run of the mill thugs back when Luffy fought buggy._ "

"Um, what are you doing?"

Zoro paused mid way through his ninetieth push up. Nami was looking down at him from her perch atop the fence, clearly confused. "I'm bored." He stated, returning to his workout. "I need to do something." The swordsman grunted.

"Uh huh..." Nami didn't look satisfied by the answer, not that Zoro cared.

"Hey mister, how many of those can you do?"

Looking up, Zoro found the three kids watching him, seemingly amazed as he continued his routine. "A couple thousand." Zoro said offhandedly.

"Wow, really?" Asked the one with the bandanna. Carrot, was it?

"Yep."

"Wow, that's so many! You must be really strong!" Onion praised, and Zoro felt himself smirk.

"If you want to help make him stronger, why not sit on his back?" Nami offered with a sly smirk.

"That sounds like fun!" That one was Pepper, right? Zoro shook his head. Their names were weird.

"Why not?" Zoro breathed out. "It'd add a bit of weight. Might help." The three kids took this as an invitation and eagerly bounded forward, Zoro holding himself halfway through pushing himself back up as they climbed onto his broad back. "Hold on." Zoro grinned, and without further warning, he dove back into his workout with renewed vigor The strength he put into pushing himself up was so forceful the kids actually lifted off from his back each time, the three boys laughing every time it happened.

Zoro was smiled as he continued. He was only into the three hundreds at the moment, and he was beginning to feel the warm tingle that came before the pleasant burn of a good workout. Normally he didn't that little warning until he got into the five hundreds. Perhaps he should by some weights to go on his back when he was doing push ups when they got a bigger ship.

He had just pushed past one thousand when Nami tapped his foot with her own. "What is it?" He asked, stopping midway once more, much to the disappointment of the kids. Following Nami's nod down the path, Zoro could make out a vaguely human shape in the haze of the heat waves. "Sorry guys, looks like the fun's over." He muttered, getting a small chorus of groans that let him with a guilty smile. He didn't want to end their fun, but that looked like his Captain. Perhaps they'd finally be getting off this island.

"Hey Luffy, where have you been?" Nami asked as she slid off the fence. Luffy wore a grim look as he stopped in front of the group, a hand on his hat.

"Hey, where's the Captain?" Carrot asked as he looked up at Luffy.

"Yeah, where's the Captain?" Onion joined in.

"Something's come up guys." Luffy said, looking from Zoro to Nami, the steel in his eyes causing Zoro to straighten his back as his right hand drifted down to _Wado Ichimonji_ 's hilt. Seeing this, Luffy nodded once, and Zoro grinned a feral grin. "Usopp and I were out by the cliffs talking when we heard voices down at the beach. We looked over the edge and saw that butler guy with some weirdo that Usopp hadn't seen before." Luffy began, the attention of the small group focused solely on him. "We overheard their conversation and... well the butler guy isn't actually a butler. He's a pirate named Kuro." Nami stiffened at this while the three kids reeled back in shock. Zoro, however, didn't know if the wolfish grin on his face could grow any more.

"Kuro? Are you sure?" Nami asked, almost disbelieving. Luffy simply nodded. "Crap." She sore. "Kuro was one of the big three in the east blue a few years back. He was worth sixteen million berri's, and is known of Kuro of a thousand plans. Apparently he always had a back up plan. But he was supposed to have been killed three years ago. Some marine named Morgan caught an they executed him."

Zoro scoffed. "Morgan caught him? No wonder Kuro's still alive." He chuckled to himself.

"They actually talked about that too. Apparently it was one of Kuro's crew that resembled him that got executed while Kuro slunk away, winding up here." Luffy sighed. "He sure as hell has a pair on him. Hiding out here, not even a full day's sail from the place where he supposedly died." He smiled a humorless smile. "Kuro's been here for three years gaining every ones trust. Now, his crew is going to attack the village tomorrow at dawn. Apparently the weirdo with him is supposed to hypnotize Kaya into writing her will to leave everything to Kuro." Shocked and outraged looks danced across the faces of Nami and Zoro, respectively, while the thee kids looked horrified.

"Hypnotized?!" Pepper cried out. "Wait, that weird guy who walking backwards! He hypnotized us into sleeping!" He turned to his two friends, each looking scandalized. Luffy looked to Zoro and Nami for an explanation.

"Yeah, that happened." Zoro said. "But he also hypnotized himself into sleeping as well." He recalled fondly. That had been a laugh.

"Right. So it was probably him that Luffy saw down at the beach." Nami rationalized. "Well then, if we know who it is that's going to hypnotize her, then we know who we need to take out, and we need to do it before he can get to her." Luffy and Zoro nodded in agreement before Nami looked up to Luffy. "We are helping, right?"

"Oh yeah." Luffy nodded. "I told Usopp to go warn Kaya about Kuro. I don't think that she'll believe him after this morning, but it'll put a bit of suspicion in the back of their minds. I hope." Luffy sighed. "We know when they're attacking, we just need to know where they're attacking from." Luffy said as he began to walk towards town.

"Hey, where are you going?" Nami asked, jogging to catch up as Zoro followed stoically behind. Carrot, Pepper and Onion each chased after the pirates. They may have been young, but they knew what was going on, and that these three were probably stronger than the people in the village. If they wanted to stay safe, they'd be sticking around these guys.

"I told Usopp to meet us at that cafe from earlier." Luffy told her as she tried, and failed, to match his long strided pace, cursing tall people all the way.

"Hey Luffy." Zoro began as the kids moved shuffled about behind him like a group of chicks following a mother hen, heads swiveling this way and that as though Kuro and Jango would jump out at them any second. "Why didn't you just wrap 'em up in those trees of yours? It would've saved us a lot of time and effort." The swordsman pointed out.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you don't want to fight." Luffy grinned as he looked at Zoro over his shoulder.

"Ha! Yeah right." The oldest of the party laughed heartily. "I was bored out of my mind earlier. Now that I get to fight one of the strongest pirates in the east blue. I'm happy." He grinned. "Just make sure to leave me someone to fight this time."

"You got to fight those guys at the docks back in Orange town, didn't you?" Luffy pointed out.

"Oh please, those guys were push overs. I need a real fight."

"Alright." Luffy smiled. "But Kuro is mine. You can take out the rest of the crew if you want." He couldn't see it, but Luffy could almost feel Zoro's grin as the village came into view. "But if I had fought them there on the beach, the rest of the village would just see it as some pirate kid who came to their island and picked on a respected butler and his friend. They need to know he's the bad guy first." Luffy said.

"I'm surprised. That was good thinking Luffy." Nami smirked, watching as Luffy sputtered in indignation.

"Hey! I can be smart!" He protested. The group laughed at Luffy's expense, the Captain's continuous defense of his intelligence only bringing more laughter as they came into sight of the small village, dusk slowly turning the sky a bruised purple as they entered the small shop to find Usopp, sitting in a booth with his head in his arms and melancholy on his face. Immediately, the group's joyous mood grew somber.

"Captain!" Cried the three boys in joy at seeing their leader. "We were so worried!" Carrot announced.

Usopp's downtrodden look vanished, replaced by a smile for his three friends. "Hey you guys! Sorry about that, the great Captain Usopp was laying the foundation for his greatest triumph yet! I needed to convince everyone of the evil in their midst before it could lash out at them!" He announced, puffing his chest out as he stood, one foot on the table top and and the other on his seat as he struck the pore of legends.

"Wow!" Onion had stars in his eyes as he looked up at the confidence Usopp radiated.

"So cool..." Pepper whispered.

"Hey Usopp." Luffy said, breaking the leader of the Usopp pirates out of his moment of self greatness. "How'd it go?" He asked, although from the look he'd seen on the other teen when they walked in, he could easily guess.

Usopp deflated slightly at the question, returning back to his seat. "Not good." He muttered, clearly disappointed in himself as a gloom hung over him. "It was just like you said: They didn't believe me after what happened this morning." He said dejectedly.

Luffy nodded. He had his hopes that they'd hear Usopp out, listen to him, but he had expected this. "Alright then, we need a plan." He said firmly, taking the seat opposite the local liar. Zoro nodded in agreement. He lived to grow stronger, to find and fight more powerful foes. To be fighting one of the strongest pirate in the East Blue was something he was eagerly looking forward to.

"Right." Usopp said as he looked the most determined Zoro had seen since meeting him. His loved ones were in danger and he would be damned if he was going to roll over and let that happen. Zoro respected him for that. "So then, what have you got?"

Suddenly, all eyes turned to look at Luffy, who felt very out of place.

"I..." He began, everyone leaning slightly close as he spoke. "Have no idea." He admitted, and Zoro felt a very string urge to strangle his Captain.

 _Whack!_

"Ow!"

Apparently Nami's urge to hit him was even stronger, though the amusement of watching Nami shack her sore fist as she glared bloody murder into the back of Luffy's head had Zoro smiling broadly.

"Well I don't know the island!" Luffy defended himself with a childish pout, something that the swordsman sincerely hoped wouldn't become a regular occurrence. How would anyone take him seriously if he followed a Captain who pouted like a kid so god damn always? "Besides, all we know is that they're attacking at dawn. We don't even know which direction from!" Usopp and his young friends slumped forward, a cloud of misery and impending defeat looming over their heads, but out of the corner of his eye, Zoro caught Nami perk up.

"You know, he's right." She said, looking as though she had just come to realize a great and surprising truth of life while the Usopp pirates seemed to sink deeper in their misery at the declaration. Either doing a very good job of ignoring them or she was ignorant to their emotional plight, Nami pressed on. "When we arrived on this island, you guys were waiting up on the cliffs for us, right?" The locals nodded, their air of depression not leaving. "How much of the island's coast is walled by cliffs?" Nami asked firmly.

"Pretty much all of it." Usopp mumbled into the table, the only thing keeping his face from hitting the hard surface being his extraordinarily long nose.

"Yeah." Carrot seconded.

"And they're really tall and steep too." Onion moaned. "They're really hard to climb."

"They surround the entire island." Pepper added. "There are only two places you can really walk up."

"Only two?" Luffy frowned at this, pinching his chin in thought. "Damn." He muttered. "If only we knew which one they were gonna use."

 _Wham!_

"Ow!" Nami complained, shaking her fist after it had bounced of the top of Luffy's head.

"Idiot." Zoro growled. "There are four of us who can fight." He reminded his Captain, ignoring Usopp's panicked inquiry about who the fourth person is. "We split up, two at each entrance, and we'll have the place covered." He stated confidently as he folded his arms over his chest.

Usopp frowned. "Wait, wouldn't that just leave two people to fight off the entire crew of their own?" He asked, a slight tremble in his voice as he played such a scene through his head.

"I could do it." Both Luffy and Zoro said easily, glancing at each other as if they hadn't thought the other would speak up.

 _Thump!_

"Ow!" Nami winced as she shook both hands. "Not everyone is suicidal like you two!" She barked, seemingly forgetting her hurting fists immediately. "Besides, any normal person would have trouble with just a handful of pirates, let alone a whole crew, but if we send you two together, that leaves the other two to take on an entire pirate crew." The navigator reasoned.

"Right." Usopp nodded. "We need to send one of you two with one of the other two, to even it out."

"Well alright." Luffy blinked. "So who do you guys want to go with?" He asked, looking from Nami to Usopp. Nami frowned, while Usopp gulped, looking both scarred at being included as a fighter and determined to defend his home at all costs.

"Well I don't know about you guys." Nami began. "But I want to make sure that this Kuro guy dosen't get his hand on the treasure I have in our boat." She said, looking about the small gathering with a gleam in her eyes that spoke of riches and a wrath unlike any other that would be unleashed should someone touch her gold.

"I'll take the shore near where Luffy and I saw Kuro meet that weirdo guy." Usopp said as he stared at the table. "There's a lot of high ground around there so it'll be easy to find a good position." Looking up, Usopp held Luffy's stare. "I think that's where they'll most likely come from."

"I'll go with you then." Luffy said quickly, Zoro grunting in annoyance. Luffy got to fight Kuro of a thousand plans while he got stuck on guard duty with the money hungry navigator.

"Alright, that's settled." Nami grinned. "Although, I wonder if these pirates will have any treasure on their ship..." A sly, greedy grin grew as Nami daydreamed how many riches such an infamous pirate crew would have aboard.

"Hey guys." Usopp said, snapping Nami out of her reverie. "What if they have some really strong guys on their crew? What if whoever they fight gets overwhelmed?"

"Don't worry Usopp." Luffy grinned that carefree grin of his. "Zoro and I are really strong. We'll take care of them."

"I'm not saying that you're not strong." Usopp pressed. "I'm just saying, we should be prepared in case they're more than we could handle."

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Nami said with a thoughtful look. "We could use something to fall back on, just in case, you know?"

"Like what?" Luffy asked, looking to Zoro and Nami uncertainly.

"We need a warning system..." Usopp sighed, running his hand down his face, until his eyes widened. Slowly, he looked to the Usopp pirates. He was hesitant, he didn't want anyone getting hurt, least of all his closest friends. Yet his home, _their_ home, was in danger. "Hey guys." The three youngest of the group turned and looked up at the village liar. "You wanna help?"

* * *

Luffy's mouth opened unnaturally wide as he yawned, arms reaching for the first grey streaks of light in the dawn sky. He really should have gotten to bed earlier last night, but who was he to deny his First Mate's need to get stronger? Zoro had been relentless. He moved faster than Luffy, striking and vanishing like rabbit beast hyped up on caffeine.

Luffy had thought he had managed to get a decent grasp on Zoro's abilities from their late night training. Having been taught by Shanks, he knew how to judge a swordsman, and he could see the skill, speed and raw power Zoro had, but that was what set him apart from Shanks. He could see Zoro's skill, he couldn't see Shanks'. That being said, he could also see Zoro's potential, something that the former bounty hunter had in spades.

Unfortunately, Zoro had become frustrated easily last night at his lack of progress in Haki. His determination was admirable, his drive unchallenged, but he had been approaching Haki all too wrong. He had thought it a skill one could learn like a new grip on his sword. Luffy had to stop him, to tell him it was more like building up a muscle that most people didn't even know existed yet. But to build it up, he had to find it first, and then discover how to exercise it. _That_ he had understood.

They had then spent the rest of the night in a pose similar to meditation as the pirate Captain explained how he felt in his mind when he used Haki, then what his body felt. The swordsman had been remarkably more complaint as a pseudo-student than he had been as a sparring partner, and Luffy was happy about that. It meant that Zoro was willing to learn, something Luffy attributed to his drive to become stronger. Those who were willing to learn were more likely to become stronger.

His head rolling over to his left shoulder, Luffy spied Usopp, the local's eyes peeled as he stared out onto the murky ocean unblinking, the water roiling in black wrath under the last vestiges of the night, the grey lines in the sky now touched with gold and red. The promise of sunrise. Sitting back to back with Usopp was Carrot, the bandanna wearing boy matching Usopp's gaze of unblinking observation as he watched the center of the island behind them.

The plan was simple: The Usopp pirates would split up, Carrot with Luffy and Usopp, Pepper with Nami and Zoro as they moved Nami's treasure, and Onion in the middle of the island. If either Luffy and Usopp or Nami and Zoro caught sight of the enemy ship, the Usopp pirate with them would then use the large slingshot Usopp spent last night making to fire a pellet into the sky over the island. The pellet would explode into fire and red dust, alerting both Onion and the group on the other side of the island. In case the pellet went unseen by the group who had not fired the pellet, Onion would fire his own pellet into the sky above them.

And now here they sat, the first true rays of the sun begining to burn their way across the sky as two watches kept a sharp lookout and the third member of the little party tried to keep his eyes open. Luffy idly wondered if Zoro was suffering from the same problem as he was. Though, considering just how Zoro lazed about when he wasn't training, there probably wouldn't be any difference. Zoro was always ready to break into a heavy slumber.

A sharp crack ripped through the air, and everyone bolted to their feet.

"The signal!" Carrot shouted as he pointed to the sky. Wheeling about, Luffy and Usopp could only just make out the red cloud against the light grey sky. Another crack pierced the sky and another plume of smoke blossomed, this one much closer to them. Onion and Pepper had done their jobs just like the plan needed them to.

"We're on the wrong side of the island." Usopp muttered. "But they met here! Why would they attack from the other side?" He asked aloud.

"Doesn't matter." Luffy said as his feet sunk into the ground, his roots tearing through earth faster than he could run. "What matters is that the plan worked. Now we have to get over there!"

"Right." Usopp nodded, determination set in as he began running. "Come on Luffy! We've got pirates to beat!" He shouted over his shoulder, Carrot racing after him. Luffy smiled as he felt his roots nudge the concrete foundations of the village buildings.

"I'll see you there!" He said as he knelt down. "Don't worry Usopp, Zoro and I'll have most of them beat before you get there." Rocks and buried decay pushed aside, Earth and roots shift and offer room as his reach grew and grew, right until he found what he searched for. Usopp had finally vanished from sight and into the small woods of the island. Roots splitting into hundreds of smaller, more delicate off shoots, Luffy searched the wall, mapping out each and every weakness in the seaside stone before, with a wide grin, he gave one, final push, and the wall came crumbling down.

* * *

The mansion was eerily silent so early. It would be another hour before the chef awoke to prepare Lady Kaya's breakfast. As Merry listened to the last delicate footsteps fade into nothingness and the gentle creak of the front doors closing, he let out a quite, strained breath that came out more of a rasp. Oh the fool he felt. Usopp had been right. The entire time, that no good, lying fantasiser had been right, and it made Merry all the more the fool.

Everything ached as he reached out in front of himself, the smooth marble cold beneath his body as he grasped at the gap in the tiles and pulled. He felt so pathetic as he slid across the polished floor, his impeccable shoes squeaking as they were dragged along with him. He could see the snail from where he lay. It sat atop a small table in the entrance foyer across the room, little stalked eyes watching him curiously, as though he was some animal it had never seen before.

Gritting his teeth, Merry reached out and pulled himself across the floor once more to the sound of his shoes squealing. His coat and trousers were slick with blood, proving an excellent lubricant as he dragged himself further, although he was loath the hear how Lady Kaya would react at seeing his blood smeared across the floor like this. The poor girl, she didn't have the heart for such things. He hoped the chef would be wise enough to keep her from the sight.

It was painful, and he was sure he'd cracked his teeth from the strain, but he finally managed to reach the legs of the table. He seized the closest one tightly in his cold, clammy hand. The metal of the table leg was cool, smooth and daintily curved Truly it was of a design worthy of his Lady's home. Sighing, Merry pushed as much strength he could muster upwards, throwing the table off balance and sideways. With a crash of wood and metal on marble and the clatter of the the draw flying open and the snail falling to the floor, Merry smiled.

Slowly, he pulled himself along the pale marble one more time, once more his shoe squeaked behind him. He sincerely hoped that he wasn't leaving a trail of black scuff marks behind him. The blood stains would be bad enough. Reaching out, Merry pulled the transponder snail to him. Picking up the receiver in one hand and dialing the short, simple emergency number of the marines in the East Blue, Merry sighed.

The dial tone only rang one before it was answered.

"Hello, this is the marines emergency line, how may I help you?" Came the voice of a young man, and Merry suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to cry.

"P-Please... Please help." He rasped. "He's here, on the island..." He wheezed, feeling out of breath, a chill settling in the pit of his stomach. Quickly, Merry held a hand over his gaping wounds, doing something, anything, to staunch the bleeding.

"Who is, sir? And what island are you on?" The operator asked, suddenly sounding more urgent.

"I-I'm on G-Gecko Island, in Syrup village." Merry managed. "He was right. He was right, Kuro's alive. K-Kuro's alive a-and he's go-going to kill the village. Pl-Please, Kuro's alive, and he's going to ki-kill them all." Merry sobbed. "He'll kill them all. Just l-like he's killed m-me."

* * *

Coby watched the waves break off of the hull of the ship to their port side, the white foam barely visible in the low light of such an early down. The first rays were just starting to touching the sky, and yet the ships were already a buzz of activity. He had been woken up three hours ago, performed his duties and then had breakfast, only to then do another round of his chores. Only now, for the past ten minutes, had he had time to take a breather.

He stood next to the railings, out of the way enough for sailors to do their jobs as quickly and efficiently a possible without them tripping over him, yet easy enough to find should he be needed. The three ships that made up what would normally constitute as a patrol sailed in a wedge formation, with the ship he stood aboard in the lead. It was only fitting, seeing as it carried the her of the marines.

Garp was a far cry from what he had expected of such a legendary figure. He had thought of him to be valiant, orderly and formal. Instead, Garp tended to be loud, obnoxious and easily bored with professional conduct. It had caught Coby off guard so much that he had wondered if he had actually met Garp's not-so-well-known brother.

But that wasn't to say anything negative about the Garp he had fallen under the command of. In fact, he was a kind man, humorous and somewhat grandfatherly. In the few days that he'd known Garp, he had firmly cemented himself within Coby's mind as a good man. In fact it had happened so fast that Coby was quite intimidated by the fact.

Sighing, Coby smiled as he turned away from the railing of the ship and headed back to Garp's cabin. Garp liked to eat. He had told Coby that when out on the open ocean, you never knew when you'd eat next, so you should always eat as much as you could whenever you got the chance. Coby had thought it sound advice, right up until he saw just how much Garp ate. Eating such quantities of food so fast... Such a thing should not be possible. Although it explained why Garp was so tall and muscular.

"Ah, cabin boy! There you are!" Garp grinned merrily as he slurped at a bowl of noodles. "I was afraid you'd miss breakfast!" He chuckled.

"Sir, you finished breakfast two hours ago..." Coby pointed out uneasily. He was still a little saw at how he had immediately been thrown into the position of Garp's personal cabin boy, that same position being the one he had suffered under Alvida's wrath for two years, but Garp was friendly enough, so that more than made up for it. Maybe, if he paid good enough attention, he could pick up the necessary skills needed to be a great marine.

"Ha! So I did!" The hero of the marines laughed heartily. "Well come here, I got you a bowl." Garp said as he nodded to a steaming bowl sitting opposite him. Coby wasn't really hungry, but Garp's advice stood, as so as he looked down into the bowl of noodles, diced vegetables strips of beef and sauce, he quickly dug in. "That's the spirit!" Gar grinned.

Coby smiled around his mouthful at the Vice-Admiral, earning uproarious laughter from the old man.

"Now then, the main reason I was gonna go looking for you." Garp began, his face darkening as he looked as serious as he had when he had heard of Morgan's deeds. "I don't know how long you've been a marine, but you don't look that old to me, which makes me wonder: How much training have you gone through?" He asked before shoveling another mouthful of noodles into his mouth.

Swallowing, Coby answered. "I-I had only signed up a day before you arrived, Sir." Coby stammered, nerved by the sudden shift in Garp's demeanor. "I-I haven't had a-any training, Sir."

Garp's dark look suddenly turned predatory. "Is that so?" He grinned, and Coby felt the urgent need to run from the cabin at top speed and throw himself overboard. "Well that's good!" Garp laughed. "I don't train marines like the regular training schools do. I don't think those piss poor excuses for marines are good enough! We need strong, hard and tough gritted marines willing to do whatever it takes to serve the people."

Coby's eyes lit up at this. Normally, whenever he heard marines talking with such reverence as to how a marines should be, it was about absolute justice or greater power than the criminals they fought, and it was those marines that turned out like the former Captain Morgan. Cold, cruel and obsessive to the point of violence that frightened those they were sworn to protect. To hear anyone, let alone such a high ranking and revered marine like Garp the Hero talk about serving the people instead? That lit a fire flamed by hope in Coby's heart.

"So." Garp continued. "Without any previous training, it means you don't have any of those sissy habits academy marines do. You're a blank slate. Clay to be shaped, and I intend to put you through all nine yards! The whole ringer!" Garp laughed, and Coby's hope was soon crushed by dread. This did not sound like it was going to be enjoyable.

It was then that the conversation was interrupted by the sound of the transponder snail on Garp's desk. Sighing, Garp almost looked as though he dreaded the sound as he spared the snail a few seconds of a glance before picking it up.

"'Ello." He sighed into the receiver. Coby managed to make out a muffled voice on the other end and Garp frowned. "Thought he was dead?" Garp asked casually as he began picking a piece of a beef strip from between his teeth. "Really?" He asked, and it seemed to Coby that he was growing more serious the more the person on the other side spoke. "Alright. I'll be there as soon as possible." Garp said firmly before placing the snail receiver back on the snail. "Change of plans." Garp sighed tiredly as he stood up and made for the door, his noodles forgotten.

"S-Sir?" Coby stammered. "What's happening?" He asked, turning about in his seat to see Garp pause in the doorway. Slowly, the legendary marine looked over his shoulder.

"You might just end up seeing you first real conflict between a wanted pirate and the marines." He said, a humorless grin on his face. "I'm sending one ship on ahead to scoop up Buggy while we and the other ship head over to Gecko Island." With that, Garp pushed through the door, but not with Coby catching his last, distant words. "We've got a dead man to hunt."

* * *

Zoro had to admit, he preferred his own crews glorified dingy over what he saw in front of him now. It was large, with a rounded hull painted a dark red. That was fine and all, Zoro actually liked the color, but the real off putter was the figurehead. It sat atop the keel far too proudly for what it was, grinning as its beady green eyes stared on ahead. In truth, the cat head looked constantly surprised, whether it was intentional or not was up in the air for the swordsman, but nevertheless, he thought it a lesser work of craftsmanship.

"Crap!" Nami cried as she hauled another treasure laden bag over her shoulder. Zoro had been helping her carry the small yet heavy sacks of gold and jewels up the incline that lead to the center of the island. He had thought it to be a good warm up for the fight to come, and he had been right. He grinned, gripping the hilts of his nameless blades as the first wave of pirates lowered small dinghies down from their ship, loaded with grinning and cheering pirates. They seemed to be in a good mood.

"Nami." Zoro began, not taking his eyes off of the closest of the small boats that had begun relaying pirates from the ship to the shore. "How much do you have left?" He asked.

"Two more after this!" The navigator called out as she hastily scrambled up the slope to hide her current load with the rest of her stash to stow away with Pepper in the undergrowth above them.

Zoro grunted, a feral grin growing as he drew two of his swords. So, cut down the pirates while keeping Nami safe as she hid the last of the treasure? Good. The more challenging, the better. Not that there looked to be a single man in this crew who could challenge him. His knees bent and muscles coiled, Zoro watched as the first boat scrapped along the rocky beach in its landfall.

"So it begins." He begun, arms crossed and swords held pointing into the air over his shoulders. "And so it will end." Pushing off from the ground, Zoro sped towards the first boat across the short beach, its passengers only just begining to jump out, when the swordsman repositioned his swords. "Bull Needles!" He called out, not four feet from his first target.

In a chorus of cries in both surprise and pain, Zoro slid to a stop in knee deep water. Behind him, six men fell into the water, mixing morning sea foam with fresh blood."What the he-?!" The oarsman began, but his words fell into a panicked cry as the small boat suddenly caved in half, a perfectly smooth cut slicing it in two. Zoro grinned in satisfaction, but faulted when he saw a man floating past him, bleeding as he went.

" _Are those... Cat ears?_ " He thought as he studied the head pieces on the downed man. Zoro looked up, to his left and right, only to shudder at the discovery. These were hardened, murdering and pillaging criminals. An they were wearing cat ears. " _All of them..._ " He bit back his confusion. He was going to fight them because he had so desperately wanted a decent battle, but now he'd do it on principle. " _What kind of self respecting pirate would wear such things..._ "

"All right, who's next?" He wondered aloud, looking up and down the beach. Four more boats had reached the shore. More lambs to the slaughter

"Hey! Who the hell is that?" The voice of outrage swept down the beach and within moments, the attention of each and every Black Cat pirate was firmly on Zoro.

Zoro grinned as he slowly backed up onto the beach. He had never fought on a beach before. Loose footings, the waves should he get too close, and now two dozen men brandishing weapons? This would be good practice. He looked to his left and right, enemies on all sides. Good. He liked that. It meant he could fight them in whichever direction he pleased. He felt like going to the left first.

Dashing forward with quick feet, Zoro found the loose sand difficult to run on, but nevertheless, it seemed his speed took them by surprise. Good. Without a second thought, the swordsman leaped into the fray. They tried to fight back, they really did. They swung swords, clubs and struck out with spears, one man even tried to brain him with a hammer.

But Zoro's swords blurred in speed, twirling about as his feet shifted only ever so slightly, keeping his stance low and unmovable. Steel met steel in horrible screeches, sparks flying and men roaring in challenge. Flesh tore, bone broke and blood spilled as death in human form slowly danced to the sound of the choir of battle.

A large man with a sword as wide as he swung the heavy blade down at the bloodied Zoro, intend on rending him in twine. Zoro merely held his swords above his head in an X form, catching the clumsy blade with ease before he shifted to his left and left the slab of steel slam into the gorund and kick up sand like a geyser. With such a wide invitation, Zoro lazily spun about and opened up the man before continuing on, not even deigning his last enemy worth his glance.

"Fire!" Came the furious cry from down the beach. Zoro's head snapped to the sound in an instant. Just in time to see the line of riflemen pulling their triggers. Acting as fast as he ever had, Zoro brought up his twin swords. With a quick flurry of movement and burst of sparks, Zoro stood panting. He had done it only a few times before, and it never failed to wear him down, but he could do it. The bullets, flattened from their impact against the flat of his blades, were proof enough of that.

Glaring down the beach at the men, fright draining the color of their faces, Zoro snarled. He could rush them, charge with his bloody blades and carve them, but the distance was great. They'd get another volley in soon. But Zoro gave pause. Grinning, he twirled his blades, as though taunting them to try again. With gritted teeth, they leveled their rifles again. Glaring down the sights of their barrels, they failing to notice the threat from behind. Zoro felt satisfaction well up inside him as he watched the line of men being mercilessly beaten over the heads by a blue staff, Nami venting her frustrations out on the now whimpering pirates.

"What are you idiots doing!" Came a furious cry from the waves. Looking out over the small waves, Zoro spotted another boat ferrying more men to the shore, but at the head of this boat stood someone that man Zoro's grin all the more devilish. He remembered the hypnotist, and he knew that the hypnotist was the one that Kuro had discussed his plans with on the shore. This was the second in command. Good, he might be able to put up a fight. "How hard is it to kill a few pests?!" The hypnotist shouted in frustration. "Kill them already!"

Orders given and hate fueled, the remains of the Black Cat pirates swarmed in a frenzy, each jeering insults and and roaring. As it seemed, they didn't like it when their friends got cut down in droves by a single man. Go figure.

Zoro took in a deep breath, a thin film of sweat and grim building up under the blood that had dried on his skin. There had to be at least thirty men coming at him at once, nothing overwhelming to him, but his late night training with Luffy, the focus and concentration it took to block the earlier bullets and the constantly shifting ground beneath his feet were slowly starting to ebb away at him. He grunted, shrugging his weariness off. He could still take them.

Sliding _Wado Ichimonji_ out of its scabbard, Zoro bit down on the hilt and readied himself. He frowned as he contemplated how to handle the situation. He could probably take most of them in one attack. Yes, that would be best. One attack to end the largest bulk of what was left. Twisting his hips and bringing his swords behind him in preparation to swing, Zoro hissed out past the hilt of his prized sword. "Dragon..." He began, corded muscles tense with power, but a single sound silenced the entire battlefield.

It sounded like thunder. A rumbling crack so loud that it could have been a mountain splitting in half. Zoro frowned. His enemy was distracted, now was his chance. "Twister!" With a roar, he lunged forward, blades a blur as a tornado tore apart the beach, sending stones, sand and pirates hurtling into the air, many screaming in either pain, shock or fear at being thrown into the air.

Zoro grinned to himself, eyes the hypnotist on the boat as it scrapped ashore, the two men behind him clambering out after him, but they froze. All three of them stood staring, wide eyed and confused. Zoro frowned. He wouldn't fall for it. He was a man of focus, brutal skill and sheer will. He would not b-. "What the hell is that?" Nami wondered aloud, her staff raised as she stood ready to continue her merciless beating of the bloodied and battered man trying to crawl away from her.

Slowly, Zoro turned to look over his shoulder. It wasn't difficult to see what they were looking at. The cliff face of the islands coast was usually tall, strong and pale stone. Usually. The cliff behind him now sported a large crack nearly ten meters long, looking like a dark maw that feed into the belly of the island. The startling thing about it was the mass of creeping greenery crawling out of it. " _That wasn't there before..._ " Zoro thought, before it clicked. "Oh."

Another rumbling crack, like an iceberg shattering, and the air trembled, the earth shaking beneath his feet. It was the only warning Zoro received, but the only one he needed. The swordsman ducked low and dived towards Nami mere moments for the entire cliff face exploded in a shower of rock and writhing mess of tendril like roots snaking around one another.

The hypnotist let out a not so manly squeal of panic as the serpentine roots lashed out, slamming into the ground and disappearing beneath the surface as they pulled themselves from the cliff like some deranged prisoner that finally had freedom within reach. It took a single second, but in that second what looked to be hundred of meters of roots had clawed their way out of the cliff, all connecting together once on the ground to coalesce into a tall, scrawny looking human shape.

Slowly, green growth set into place, rough brown bark smoothed and lost much of its color, a straw hat and clothes forming, the details of a face became more defines and the ends of the branch like arms tied off together in long, thin knots that grew into fingers. Zoro had to admit, as he watched the last of Luffy form on the beach, an eager smile on his face, his Captain knew how to make an entrance. There wasn't much of the cliff face left.

"Captain." Zoro greeted with a small smile, amused as he watched Luffy's own smile fall as he took in the scene before him.

"Zoro." Luffy whined, much like a child would. "You didn't leave any for me!" He said accusingly.

"Well there's those three there." Zoro said around the hilt of _Wado_.

Luffy gave him a bland look, clearly unimpressed. Nevertheless, he raised his right leg behind him, as though to kick. "Willow Whip!" He announced, swinging his leg around in a wide circle. Zoro had to duck as Luffy's legs grew into a large, thick tree branch that swept the entire beach. The hypnotist and his two goons watched, having yet to pick their jaws up off the beach after Luffy's arrival. Unfortunately, the two lackeys seemed to have more of a brain than their leader, as the two clearly saw the danger and ducked just in time to avoid being picked up off the sand by the kick, much like their leader was, and sent flying into the ocean.

Zoro winced at the impact, the kick landing squarely on the hypnotists chest and the sound of ribs creaking and groaning under the strength of the kick was not difficult to hear, nor was the mans screaming as he sailed through the air, only bounce of their ships ridiculous figurehead and into the ocean. The two goons followed their leaders trajectory with open awe and fear.

Slowly, they turned to stare at Zoro and Luffy, Nami smiling as she walked up behind them, brandishing her staff across her the back of her shoulders in an attempt to look as innocent as possible. Zoro rolled his eyes at her.

"M-M-monster..." Said the scrawny man with swirly fashioned green hair, trembling as he inched backwards.

"D-D-D-Demons!" Cried the much rounder man not wearing a shirt. They both sported the same cat ear headpieces as the rest f the Black Cat crew, but these two wore gloves fashioned to look like cat paws, claws and all.

"Yep." Luffy smiled, seemingly pleased with the kick he had delivered to the second in command.

"Probably." Zoro grinned, swinging his swords at the crimson sand to free his blades of any blood. The ocean tide was rising, foamy waves creeping up the beach slowly washing away the sand. It would take a few hours, but Zoro suspected the beach would look as clean and not-so-murdery by lunch.

"What is going on here?"

The voice was smooth, calculating, but carried an undertone of rage. The beach had been silent but for the cashing of the waves, the voice carried long and far, all the way down to the last remaining five people standing. The two members of the Black Cat pirates suddenly paled, trembling at the sound, while Luffy and his crew turned about, curious, to see Kuro, the Captain of the very crew they had just swept aside, standing atop the slope that lead into the island center with a small carry back in his hand.

"I never thought you would be torn apart so easily by a group of brats." He spat in distaste. "It seems the Black Cat pirates aren't what they used to be." The sneer on his lips was almost dripping poison. "So, it seems I must finish you three off by mys-" Kuro's head rocked forward as a small black cloud exploded against the back of his skull, cutting him off.

"Th-There's f-f-four of us h-here, y-you bastard!" Emerging from the trees, Usopp placed another pellet in his slingshot, pulled it back and took aim, prepared to fire again.

Slowly, with a glare that could put men six feet under, Kuro turned to face Usopp, the liar flinching away at his gaze. "Ah, Usopp." Kuro grinned cruelly. "Perfect. I owe you for that punch earlier, don't I?" Reaching down into the small bag, he unzipped it and slid his hand in.

"Gunpowder star!" Usopp cried out, loosing the pellet in the pouch of his slingshot. A blur of movement, a the pellet struck, exploding into another black powder cloud. Usopp let out a breath, lowering his slingshot as he watched the cloud slowly ebb away in the breeze to reveal nothing but the tattered remains of Kuro's bag. "Huh?" Usopp grunted, squinting at the empty bag. "I was sure I hit him..."

"Too slow." A cold voice whispered into his ear. Usopp couldn't even cry out before the soil beneath his feet exploded into the air, steel catching on twisting wood in a crash of strength. Usopp wheeled about, eyes wide as he stumbled back. Kuro stood, clawed gloves adorning his hands and now caught in the twisting knots of the wooden grain of the wall that had grown out from the grown in an instant.

"If you owe him for that punch..." Luffy's voice growled and slowly, like a demon from a fable of haunted woods and vengeful spirits, the pirates face slowly began to emerge from the blackening sheer that began to coat the wood. "Then you're gonna owe me a plot six feet under." With a sharp _Crack!_ and a twist, the wood snapped about and folded upon itself, the wall of obsidian coated wood becoming a human in a fraction of a second. Luffy stood, head and shoulders bearing down upon Kuro, seemingly not caring for the five blades of Kuro's right glove that impaled his abdomen.

Usopp blinked, then rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. No, what he was seeing was real. It was happening right in front of him. Looking over his shoulder, Usopp peered down at the remaining four people on the beach. Nami, Zoro and those two weirdos from Kuro's crew. Right where Luffy was, however, was now a large hole in the rocky sand. Almost like Luffy had dug under ground, crept through the ground and popped up behind Usopp and in front of Kuro like some kind of weed. " _But how... That's not possible!_ "

"Y-You..." Kuro stammered and, for the first time since Usopp had seen him, the pirate turned murderous butler was shaken. No, he looked _afraid_. "You ate a d-devil fruit, didn't you?" He managed.

"Oh yeah." Luffy grinned, cracking his knuckles. "It's gonna suck to be you." Kuro paled. Luffy's hand grasped the former pirates arm in a vice like grip and, his abdomen blackening and twisting, he snapped off the rigid metal of the clawed gloves like sticks. Kuro jerked back, but Luffy's grip gave no quarter, and soon his fist had become encroached with thick brown bark, flesh and bone becoming unyielding hard wood.

Luffy's grin widened, watching as horror etched itself onto Kuro's face at what he saw. Wood started to grow from the pirates hand, reaching around like a serpent entwining it's prey and wrapped around Kuro's arm. Almost like a liquid, it enveloped him, creeping over his frantically panicked movements. It was almost like seeing someone sink into quicksand. It took but seconds, but it felt like hours to all watching as Kuro's right arm was engulfed in the quickly growing wood.

"Nyanban brothers!" Kuro cried out, voice shrill and panicked as sweat dotted his brow. "Help me!" She ordered, pulling at his shoulder with his left arm, almost as though he had hoped to escape by tearing his own limb off.

"Zoro, take care of them." Luffy said calmly, coldly, without so much as turning about to give his order.

Nami hadn't even turned to see what Zoro would do when she saw a flash of steel, sunlight catching blades and quickly silenced shrieks of pain before Zoro was flicking blood off his swords before slowly sliding them back into their sheaths. It had happened so quick, with no hesitation what so ever, that the navigator took a moment to take in what she had just seen. A ice cold pit settled in her stomach, a newfound fear of her 'crew mates' like a red hot poker running down her spine. It burned, it seared, but there was little she could do about it. She needed them. Needed their treasure.

Nami watched, taking in every detail of the cold man in front of her. Without even watching where he stepped, he marched over the bloody beach and to the slope the last of their enemies had been held on. Swallowing her sick, Nami forced herself to play the part and follow him, yet she never took her eyes off of Zoro. This was what she had grown up around. Hardened killers who butchered without care. This man... This was a pirate.

Seeing his last hopes fall, Kuro felt something in him die. The last vestige of pride, hope and ambition. It cracked at first, like the shell of an egg, before the yoke came spilling out, his fears overwhelming him.

"No!" He screamed, and with a frantic, panicked slash of his left hand, he fell backwards, screaming in pain. He fell to the ground, his hand gripping the stump where his shoulder used to be. "I won't die here! I can't!" He shouted, a tear leaking out from behind his glasses. "I planned this! Years of time and devotion!" He scrambled backwards, swinging his blades at Luffy as the tree man remained, not moving as the wood that had nearly engulfed the former pirate receded, letting his discarded arm fall to the ground uselessly.

"Four years I planned this!" Kuro screamed at the still grinning teen. "An entire years searching ans studying the right families! Another three making them believe I was to be trusted, loved! Three years!" He swayed, his steps hazardous and the left side of his clothes slick in fresh blood. "I will not let yo-"

"Klahadore?"

The fragile voice cut through the mania of Kuro's screaming rant, the nigh delirious schemer spilling about in surprise. Usopp scrambled up to his feet, desperately wanting to rush to her side and spare her the sight before them all, but the fear of Kuro's wild flailing and swaying held him in check. Luffy's grin vanished in an instant, replaced by a hard gaze, narrowed eyes and a tension that spoke of his readiness to jump in at a moments notice. Zoro and Nami, having fled the blood soaked sand, came to a stop upon seeing Kaya, the frail lady of the island in her beautiful white gown, with a pistol in her hands.

"Lady Kaya..." Kuro muttered, as though he couldn't believe his own eyes. A pregnant pause swallowed the group, no one sure what to do, But Luffy caught the sliver of a wolfish grin on Kuro's face. He lunged forward, left hand raised and claws gleaming maliciously for the kill. Kaya raised her pistol, Usopp dashed forward as fast as his legs could carry him. Neither would be enough. Neither were fast enough.

Luffy was

Kuro's lunge stopped mid way, a brief second of confusion on his face as he stopped mid air, before he was pulled downwards by his legs, his body slammed into the dirt like a rag doll. Spitting out soil and a tooth, the Captain of the Black Cat pirates looked down to find thick, twin roots had reached up from the ground and seized his legs up to his knees. Usopp had passed him in a second, Kaya left pointing at where Kuro would be.

"Damn you!" Kuro shrieked, his bloody suit becoming smearing in dirt and leaves as he was dragged backwards across the ground, towards Luffy. His eyes widened, watching as a nest of tendrils opened up the ground in front of Luffy like a pit of vipers lashing out. "No!" He screamed. "No! Four years! I will not lose!" He felt his legs become ensnared, his body lifted into the ground as branches engrossed him in bindings, fusing together to create an unmoving imprisonment. "My plan cannot fail!" Kuro cried out, his arm reaching out in desperation as his face was swallowed by the growing tree.

Silence slithered about the group, Usopp covering Kaya's eyes as the tree stopped growing, it's prisoner taken and task complete. "Luffy..." Usopp began in a dreading whisper.

"Don't worry, he's still alive." Luffy sighed, his feet returning to flesh and bone once again. "He just won't be moving for a while." The Captain could see the tension melt out of Kaya, Usopp and Nami. "He won't be hurting anyone else again, though. Not after what he did." He said gravely, pressing his hat down until it shadowed his eyes. "Not after threatening my friends like that."

"Friends?" Usopp spoke up, his hand finally falling from Kaya's eyes, yet his body still blocked her view of her former caretakers imprisonment. "You mean..?" He trailed off, looking to Kaya and then pointing at himself. Luffy grinned widely, his solemn mood swinging widely back to cheerful boy.

"Of course!" He chuckled. "You guys are my friends, and he was going to hurt you. I couldn't let that happen."

Behind him, Nami frowned at his back, then looked to Zoro. The stoic swordsman remained unmoving, not even flinching. The man seemed to be made of stone and steel, yet she could see it in his eyes, a certain softness. A warmth. " _No, they're pirates, killers. A target. Nothing more._ " She scolded herself.

"I'd fight for any of you guys." Luffy continued, looking to Zoro and Nami, oblivious to the navigators inner turmoil. "You're all my friends." He smiled

Zoro, having fought to remain unfeeling during the touching moment, finally let himself crack, and smiled. Nami, however, waned to scream in frustration as she, too, couldn't help but smile. " _This is not how pirates were supposed to behave!_ " She silently fumed as she restrained herself from tearing her hair out. " _You can't just go from ruthless killing machines to goofy friends so quickly! It's not fair!_ "

"So..." Kaya began, a single tear escaping her wide eyes to flee down her cheek. "Kuro, he was really..." She fought back a sob, but couldn't stop the sniff.

"Yeah." Usopp said softly. "He was."

"Y-You were right." She managed, weakly choking back her emotion. "Now M-Merry..." It seemed too much for the young lady, and with a breif sway, she collapsed forward into Usopp's chest, tears flowing freely and sobs wracking her body.

"M-Merry?" Usopp began. He knew the butler, he was kind, if not a bit odd. Sure he had been rude to Usopp on occasions, but there were only four people in the village who hadn't been. "What happened to Merry?" He asked.

"Klaha-, no." Kaya caught herself, he grief and pain turning the world ending fury for the briefest of moments. "Kuro." She spat. "He hurt Merry, hurt him badly. The chef found him near the front door, a transponder snail near him. We think Kuro might have caught Merry on the transponder and-and." Another bought of sobs coursed through her, the stain of her tears and running nose growing on Usopp's clothes. "He's alive, but we don't know for how much longer. The chef did all he could but..."

Usopp nodded, his hand absently rubbing her back in steady circles as he tried to clam her. "He'll be fine, Kaya. We'll get him to the village doctor and have him fixed up and healthy in no time." He said, forcing a peppy voice and a smile. "Everything will be fine."

Behind them, Luffy and his crew had taken several steps back, Zoro inspecting the tree that contained Kuro with suspiciously narrowed eyes, as though expecting the former pirate to burst out of the tightly packed wood at any moment. Nami was standing off to the side with Luffy, the two watching Usopp and Kaya with heavy hearts. There was little they could do, but it was still painful to hear. Nami, having been roiling in her inner thoughts since she had Zoro had left the beach, turned to Luffy.

"Did you really mean that?" Nami asked, unsure if she was being skeptical or wanting to chase away any traces of her earlier thoughts. "That's you'd fight for any of us?" Luffy's grin softened, from childish and overactive, to tender, caring and understanding. He could lie, she knew this, but she had seen a thousand people lie, each spinning whatever story they needed her to believe, each failing miserably. Looking up at Luffy now, Nami could firmly state that he wouldn't have to try to convince her of what he he said. She knew he'd tell the truth.

"Of course I would." He said quitely, and Nami felt herself smile, and nodded to herself as she looked to her feet. By whatever passed as divine, she feel foolish now. It had been kill or be killed on the beach. Zoro couldn't afford to hesitate, and neither would Luffy had been, had he been there for more than the last few Black Cat pirates to fall. Nevertheless, she knew that Luffy's words weren't just the truth.

Those words were a promise.

"Marines!"

And it was that cry that broke the pirates moment of silent accomplishment and peace, as Carrot, Onion and Pepper came rushing down the path in a panic.

"Marines are coming!" Carrot fretted.

"Two ships! Really big ones!" Onion shouted.

"And there's an angry old guy yelling from the front of one!" Pepper cried.

* * *

 **And that's chapter 4.**  
 **I'm just going to quitely slink away, hoping that the super long chapter of 22,244 words is enough to make up for my two months of not updating. I know it won't, but hey, I can hope.  
If there's anything you noticed out of place, mistakes or so then let me know, half of this was written between 10pm and 3am.**  
 **Fun fact, I got an email that someone was now following this story about ten minutes before I updated.**  
 _ **Make sure to leave suggestions in the reviews for which three you want to join the crew!**_  
 **Till next time!**  
 **Toodles!**


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